Key Contacts
Practice Areas
Risk Management Program Rule – What Changed and What’s Ahead in 2026
EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP), established under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, is intended to minimize risk at industrial facilities that handle certain “extremely hazardous substances” by requiring the preparation of risk management plans to examine potential chemical release scenarios and outline prevention and emergency response procedures. The RMP has been the subject of several regulatory changes since its inception in 1990. Last year, we wrote about the finalization of the Biden Administration’s Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Rule, 89 Fed. Reg. 17622 (Mar. 11, 2024) (SCCAP), which had introduced expanded requirements like Safer Technology and Alternatives Analyses (STAA) and third-party audits, enhanced incident investigations, and explicitly required facilities to consider “natural hazards” associated with climate change during hazard evaluations. The SCCAP Rule faced immediate legal challenges, including requests for EPA to reconsider the SCCAP Rule by the RMP Coalition and petitions for review filed in the United States Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Under the Biden Administration, EPA denied the RMP Coalition’s petition for reconsideration, but following the transition to the Trump Administration, EPA announced in March 2025 that it would reconsider the SCCAP Rule, while simultaneously moving to hold all pending litigation in abeyance. EPA’s 2025 Spring Unified Agenda illustrated EPA’s plan to initiate a new rulemaking in August of 2025 and issue a final rule by January 2026 with the intent to align the RMP with EPA’s stated priorities to “ensure clean air, land, and water for every American; restore American energy dominance; and promote cooperative federalism and cross-agency partnership while reducing regulatory burden on facilities.” However, in moving to hold the litigation in abeyance, EPA stated that it intended to finalize a new RMP rule later than anticipated, in “late 2026.” State of Oklahoma v. EPA, No. 24-1125 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 6, 2025) (Doc. No. 2104221).
Therefore, the regulated industry and other concerned parties should expect to see a proposed rule revising or rescinding certain of the requirements from the SCCAP Rule published in the Federal Register in early 2026. For now, the SCCAP Rule remains in effect, including the May 10, 2027 deadline to comply with the rule’s new provisions.
