NPRA ’08: Chem chiefs to meet with EPA on Champ

30 March 2008 00:49  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--Senior executives of about 70 US chemical companies will meet here on Monday with a top US environmental official to map strategy for a US chemical control programme to rival Reach, an industry source said on Saturday.

 

The meeting between Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) assistant administrator Jim Gulliford and chemical company presidents and other senior executives is aimed at helping EPA institutionalize the new US-led plan for North American chemicals management, said Jim Cooper, director of petrochemicals for the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA).

 

The meeting has been scheduled amid NPRA’s annual International Petrochemicals Conference (IPC) in order to give this gathering of top-level industry officials an opportunity to speak directly with Gulliford, Cooper said.

 

Gulliford heads the EPA office of prevention, pesticides and toxic substances and is responsible for implementing the chemical assessment and management programme (Champ) created by the August 2007 Montebello Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico.

 

A tiered, risk-based assessment programme, Champ is seen by the US chemicals industry as a more palatable and workable alternative to the EU’s wide-ranging plan for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach), now being put in force.

 

“The meeting with Gulliford is to develop a strategic plan for industry to help EPA get Champ institutionalized,” Cooper said.

 

With Reach now being put into force in Europe and with the US national government due to change hands in January 2009, Cooper said there is urgent work being done to get Champ up and running and in place before a new president takes office in January.

 

“It is real important to get this programme institutionalized against the possibility that a new administration might try to scrap it before it becomes viable,” Cooper said.

 

It is widely anticipated that in this year’s US national elections on 4 November, Democrats will widen their majorities in both the House and Senate and perhaps win the White House as well.  Some top Democrat leaders have expressed support for legislation to establish a US-style Reach programme.

 

US chemical and broader manufacturing interests worry that Reach will severely undermine US-EU trade and ultimately could migrate to developing nations.  The US Champ plan is being rushed into effect at least in part to offer other countries an alternative to Reach, Cooper said.

 

He said that following Monday’s meeting with Gulliford, officials from NPRA, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and other industry trade groups will work to present a framework for Champ implementation to EPA by May or earlier.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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