Industry Insider Tapped For Chemical Oversight At EPA

The White House budget proposal released this week would reportedly bolster funding for the nation's new chemical oversight law amid otherwise steep cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency.

But the division charged with implementing that law will be headed by a prominent critic of the EPA's chemical evaluation practices.

Bloomberg noted this week that Nancy Beck was tapped to lead the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention last month. That office continues to oversee the rollout of the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, a long-sought revision of decades-old chemical standards largely supported by both industry and environmental advocates.

The new law, in part, updates the EPA's procedures for testing potentially high-risk substances and requires the agency to make affirmative safety determinations for new chemicals.

But Beck, in her previous role as a senior director at the American Chemistry Council, sharply criticized some aspects of the law just weeks before taking a position at the EPA.

Bloomberg reported that Beck told a Senate panel in March that the EPA's decision to include 1-bromopropane — commonly used in adhesives, foam and dry cleaning — among its top priorities for study was "not consistent with the best available science."

She also said that the EPA's system for assessing chemical toxicity was outdated and led to "overly conservative" estimates.

The ACC — which represents some of the largest chemical producers in the world — told Bloomberg that Beck was "a dedicated scientist who brings with her to the agency extensive expertise in chemical management policy."

But environmental advocates and former EPA officials criticized the appointment, which followed President Trump's nomination of frequent EPA critic Scott Pruitt to serve as its administrator.

"There’s no one who has done more to delay and ultimately deny protection from chemicals linked to cancer than Nancy Beck," Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group told Bloomberg. "Trump’s EPA has completely abdicated its responsibility to keep us safe.”