Landmark PFAS Rule Faces Battles Over Costs And Science

Thomas Brugato’s commentary was included in a Law360 article covering new federal drinking standards aimed at regulating “forever chemicals” by the Environmental Protection Agency. The article also discusses how the rule is likely to attract tough legal battles over implementation costs, supporting science, and other elements.

Thomas provided his insight on the issue, saying “this is a pretty novel step for the agency to take. They're listing a new class of contaminants that they haven't regulated in this fashion before. So I think we're going to see a lot of novel legal issues come up in any challenges to this rule. I would expect there to likely be legal challenges brought by states, utilities, or other entities that may have costs.”

Thomas also agreed that rule opponents will have their work cut out for them at the appeals court. “The challengers will be best off, most likely to succeed, if they can really point to some pretty significant EPA flaw in analyzing the relevant evidence. And they're going to have a high burden to show that,” he said.