Environmental Protection Agency July 25, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA received a petition, dated April 5, 2005, from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The petition requests EPA initiate rulemaking to require that: All chemical testing conducted in connection with test rules and voluntary consent orders under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as well as testing under the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program, adhere to certain animal welfare principles contained in guidance provided to participants in the voluntary HPV Challenge Program; and EPA enforce those guidelines where they are not followed. The petition states that it is filed under section 21 of TSCA and section 553(e) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Although EPA believes the petitioner's request is outside the scope of TSCA section 21, EPA responded to the petitioners within the 90-day timeframe established in TSCA for section 21 petitions. EPA has responded to the petition by denying the request and is announcing the public availability of this response.

On July 9, 2002, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) submitted a request that EPA approve a revision to its process weight rate rules into the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP). The revision clarifies language and applicability to better establish IDEM's interpretation of the rule and to correct rates that were previously calculated incorrectly in the process weight rate table incorporated in the rule. EPA is proposing to approve the SIP revision request. In the rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the SIP revision as a direct final rule without prior proposal, because EPA views this as a noncontroversial revision and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this proposed rule, no further action is contemplated in relation to this proposed rule. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.