On June 14, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) submitted a statement for the record to the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability outlining industry’s concern with a growing number of proposed federal regulations that could stifle innovation and weaken supply chain resiliency.
The statement outlines that the U.S. business of chemistry is already a heavily regulated subsector of American manufacturing, with the Code of Federal Regulations alone containing more than one million restrictions applicable to chemical manufacturers and annual compliance costs estimated to be between $2 billion and $3 billion. ACC also has identified 13 currently proposed chemical industry regulations that impose a collective cost to the economy of close to $7 billion per year using the agency’s own estimates.
“ACC has long supported responsible regulation that puts science first, promotes innovation and supports supply chain resiliency,” said ACC president and CEO Chris Jahn in a press release. “We are very concerned by a growing number of proposed federal regulations that would not meet these standards. Unless the Administration moderates several of these proposed regulations, critical chemistries will suffer—and the important products they support will suffer as well.”
ACC stated it’s concerned that some of these regulations will restrict or entirely prohibit critical chemistries that make up the supply chain for important technologies, including many that are policy priorities under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and CHIPS and Science Act.
“Policymakers, the White House, and federal agencies must do a better job of thinking through the real-world supply chain and whole economy impacts of regulatory outcomes so sectors like the U.S. chemical industry are not stifled and can continue to be a solutions provider for many of the challenges we face as a society,” concluded Jahn.
