Courthouse News
by Nicolas Iovino
San Francisco, CA – Despite identifying major gaps in knowledge about asbestos in a recent draft risk report, the Trump administration on Thursday defended lax reporting rules that let companies avoid disclosing how much asbestos is made, imported and put into U.S. products. “The EPA has offered its basis which is rooted in science, and the court should defer to the agency’s discretion,” Justice Department lawyer Brandon Adkins argued in federal court in California. Adkins was defending the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s December 2018 denial of a petition seeking to close loopholes in asbestos reporting requirements for U.S. importers and manufacturers.