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For Immediate Release
April, 20 2023, 09:58am EDT
Contact:
Sarah Packer (CEH), sarah@ceh.org,
Bob Sussman (CEH), bobsussman1@comcast.net,
Kyla Bennett (PEER), kbennett@peer.org,
EPA Needs a Transparent Public Process for Inhance PFAS SNUNS
Unclear comment and review deadlines, heavy redactions, and disorganized files are blocking meaningful comments on alarming PFAS risks
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a seriously flawed public comment process in its review of dangerous PFAS found in plastic containers, according to a letter sent today to Assistant Administrator Freedhoff by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Environmental Health (CEH).
The groups are asking EPA to fix the public comment process for 18 Significant New Use Notices (SNUNs) for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (aka PFAS or “forever chemicals”) created by Inhance Technologies in the fluorination of millions of plastic containers. The public comment process is a critical opportunity for stakeholders to provide data and analysis to EPA as it decides whether it will allow Inhance Technologies to continue to use a process that creates highly toxic PFAS during fluorination. Extensive data demonstrate that several PFAS are not only present in fluorinated containers but leach into container contents, directly exposing a large segment of the U.S. population and consumers abroad to PFAS.
“EPA needs to move quickly to remove these potent long-term toxins from products,” stated Tim Whitehouse, PEER’s executive director and a former EPA enforcement attorney, noting that EPA has provided public notices for only 9 of the 18 SNUNs filed by Inhance and has failed to coordinate and align the comment and review periods for these interlinked submissions. “EPA gives no indication that it understands the importance of being open and transparent with the public on the dangers to the public caused by PFAS in plastic containers.”
EPA’s flawed approach to the Inhance case is underlined by the significant deficiencies in the nine SNUNs posted for public comment, which –
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- Are redacted such that critical information, such as the number of containers fluorinated annually, cannot be accessed;
- Lack key attachments which appear to have been removed from public view without explanation; and
- Are riddled with inconsistencies, including a failure to properly notice half the new uses.
“EPA’s failure to provide proper public notice on all 18 SNUNs for these dangerous chemicals already flowing through the stream of commerce is troubling, to say the least,” added Sarah Packer of CEH. “EPA must demonstrate a commitment to public health and public engagement by urgently fixing this flawed process.”
Late last year, the groups filed a citizen enforcement lawsuit under TSCA against Inhance to stop its manufacture of PFAS. Through the Justice Department, EPA also filed a lawsuit against Inhance for continuing to manufacture PFAS in violation of the SNUN. Earlier this month, a federal district court judge dismissed the PEER/CEH suit without prejudice at the request of both Inhance and EPA on the grounds the government was “diligently prosecuting” its case. The two groups are moving to intervene in the DOJ suit against Inhance.
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Read the PEER/CEH letter to EPA
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers, and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local, and tribal employees.
LATEST NEWS
Dems Unveil Plan to Crack Down on Stock Buybacks as Trump Tax Cuts Fuel $4.8 Trillion 'Bonanza'
"It’s shameful that wealthy shareholders and executives are profiting while American families pay through the roof for groceries, gas, and rent."
Jun 11, 2026
A group of Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation to hike taxes on US corporations that buy back their own stock as a new analysis estimated that major companies have spent nearly $5 trillion on share repurchases since President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts took effect.
The Democratic legislation, titled the Stock Buyback Accountability Act of 2026, would increase the current stock buyback excise tax from 1% to 4%, a change that experts say would raise around $240 billion in revenue over a 10-year period and likely dissuade some companies from engaging in buybacks, which artificially inflate share prices and further enrich shareholders and executives.
“After getting massive tax breaks from Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, giant corporations are turning around and delivering stock buybacks at record highs,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in introducing the new bill to rein in what they called corporate America's "stock buyback bonanza."
“It’s shameful that wealthy shareholders and executives are profiting while American families pay through the roof for groceries, gas, and rent," said Warren. "This bill is an important step forward in making corporations pay their fair share."
The legislation's release coincided with an analysis conducted by the advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which found that 100 of the largest corporations in the US have spent a combined $4.8 trillion on stock buybacks in the eight years since enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law.
"Every time Republicans sweep an election they shower corporations with new tax breaks, and then corporations shower their wealthy shareholders and executives with new stock buybacks."
Just 10 companies—Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Oracle, Nvidia, and Visa—were responsible for more than $2 trillion of the $4.8 trillion in total buybacks since 2017, ATF noted. The group estimated that, had the Stock Buyback Accountability Act been in place over the past eight years, the federal government could have raised around $200 billion in revenue from the 100 big corporations examined in the new analysis.
“The huge tax cuts corporations received from the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law—which were supposed to be used to increase employee pay and business investment—have instead been wasted on trillions of dollars of stock buybacks,” said ATF executive director David Kass. “Stock buybacks widen economic inequality by making already wealthy shareholders even richer. We need the Stock Buyback Accountability Act now more than ever.”
Stock buybacks were effectively prohibited in the US until 1982, as they were considered a form of market manipulation. Over four decades later, in 2025, stock buybacks by American companies surpassed $1 trillion—a record high.
"Every time Republicans sweep an election they shower corporations with new tax breaks, and then corporations shower their wealthy shareholders and executives with new stock buybacks," Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement Thursday. "We need to dial up the tax on these buybacks, and if corporations decide they’re better off investing in workers and long-term growth, that’s a great outcome.”
ATF noted in its analysis that "the resulting rise in stock price created by a buyback is not taxed unless the stock is sold."
"With the top 5% of households owning 70% of all stocks, that is a big benefit for wealthy investors, who prefer the unrealized income which comes from buybacks to the traditional corporate dividends that are paid out and taxed on an annual basis," the group observed.
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Money Flows Reveal 'Trumpified' 250th Celebration Rife With 'Grift, Self-Dealing, and Enriching Friends'
"The Trump administration has once again found an avenue to tilt the scales in favor of corporate interests even as millions struggle to believe in the dream of America."
Jun 11, 2026
A report released Thursday reveals that the Trump administration has been using the United States' 250th birthday as an opportunity to shovel more than $100 million in federal contracts and grants to "a network of politicized entities under the control of Trump administration officials and political allies."
The report, produced jointly by researchers at Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, reveals how Freedom 250, an organization created by Trump loyalists last year after a failed effort to take over the congressionally-authorized America 250, has been raising money to create a "Trumpified" semiquincentennial celebration.
Since October, the administration has handed out contracts and grants worth nearly $103 million to entities that are either controlled or influenced by Trump insiders including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, 2024 campaign manager Chris LaCivita, and former campaign finance director Meredith O’Rourke.
In addition to receiving taxpayer cash, Freedom 250 is getting undisclosed amounts in private funding from corporations including ExxonMobil, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and United Airlines, all of which have major regulatory issues before the federal government.
"Freedom 250’s ongoing efforts to raise private money raise a slate of ethics and transparency concerns about whether Trump and his allies are soliciting donations in exchange for access to the administration, including the president," the report notes, "especially since many of the corporations that have joined have major business dealings currently before the administration."
Alan Zibel, research director with Public Citizen and co-author of the report, said that Freedom 250's entire operation revolved around creating a "Trumpified version of the 250th anniversary" that is "mostly about lionizing Trump and catering to his political base."
"The 250th anniversary of the country should be a moment to reflect on the values of the nation," added Zibel. "Apparently, the Trump administration is replacing those values with grift, self-dealing, and enriching friends with taxpayer dollars."
Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, program director with the Revolving Door Project and report co-author, remarked that the Freedom 250 celebrations fit a lifelong Trump pattern of "obsessively scarring everything in his path with his likeness, his name, and his gaudy, dictatorial taste in faux gilding."
"The Trump administration has once again found an avenue to tilt the scales in favor of corporate interests," Rosenthal added, "even as millions struggle to believe in the dream of America 250 years after the signing of the [Declaration of Independence]."
A Thursday report in The Atlantic detailed the tensions between Freedom 250 and America 250, which is still planning to put on its own events in a spirit of nonpartisan celebration of the United States.
While some Republican members of America 250, including former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, have been trying to make peace with the more MAGA-centric Freedom 250 operation, that hasn't stopped Trump loyalists from taking shots at the group.
"America250 can’t get over the fact that Trump won,” former Trump campaign manager LaCivita told The Atlantic. “They want to apologize for America’s 250th. We don’t.”
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‘Brazen Partisan Power Grab’: Florida Supreme Court Defies State Constitution to Give GOP Another Redistricting Win
Florida's constitution explicitly bans partisan gerrymandering. But a court full of DeSantis appointees just upheld maps that give the GOP 24 of the state's 28 seats with no time to reverse it before November.
Jun 11, 2026
In defiance of state law and the will of voters, the Florida Supreme Court has handed Republicans another major win in the redistricting wars in time for this year’s midterms, approving a ruthlessly gerrymandered map that could hand another four US House seats to the GOP.
Florida’s state constitution is unusually explicit in its ban on partisan gerrymandering; the Fair Districts Amendment (FDA) approved in 2010 by 63% of voters expressly states that maps may not be drawn “with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.” The court has struck down previous attempts by Republicans to draw more favorable maps on these grounds as recently as 2015.
But six of the seven justices that make up the current court have been appointed by Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. And when voting rights groups challenged a new map signed by the governor last month that is projected to give Republicans an advantage in 24 of the state’s 28 House districts, the right-wing court gave DeSantis what he wanted.
By a 6-1 ruling, the court on Wednesday declined to rule on the merits of the case, denying opponents' request for an emergency injunction, with the majority arguing that, despite the rapidly approaching election, this was not enough of a reason to rule on it while it's still being reviewed by a lower court.
The lone dissenter, Justice Jorge Labarga, who happens to be the only justice not appointed by DeSantis, argued that the case could be reviewed under the court's "pass-through" provision, which allows the court to expedite rulings on matters of great public importance.
"Surely," he said, "the upcoming 2026 congressional elections affecting the representation of millions of Floridians meet that threshold.”
With the state’s primaries set for August 18, this virtually guarantees that, despite its unconstitutionality, the map will be in place come November, as Republicans across the nation try to "pack and crack" enough Democratic strongholds to cling to control of the House in 2026.
In a post to social media, Florida's Republican Attorney General, James Uthmeier, celebrated the order as a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL VICTORY.”
The Florida Supreme Court has REJECTED the challenge to the state’s redistricting plan and new map.
This assures that the recently enacted map will be in place for the 2026 election.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) June 10, 2026
Opponents of the map—including Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and the League of United Latin American Citizens—have said that the governor has made no effort to hide the overtly partisan nature of his redistricting push, which he carried out rapidly under an emergency session of the state legislature without public input.
In their lawsuit last month, they pointed out that the governor himself provided a color-coded version of the map to Fox News to highlight projected GOP gains—although Republicans won just under 57% of votes in House elections across Florida in 2024, they’d be expected to control nearly 86% of seats under the new maps.
Meanwhile, Jason Poreda, a senior DeSantis adviser who has described himself as the map's "drawer" has acknowledged that he used "partisan data" to draw the map in spite of the FDA.
As is the case with many of the maps drawn to maximize GOP power, DeSantis' cracks up majority-minority districts, including one predominantly Black district in Palm Beach and Broward County, and splinters the Orlando-Kissimmee area's Latino community across four districts.
And here is the new Florida congressional map in Dave's Redistricting: https://t.co/fTqDHjncwz pic.twitter.com/UTxflFazT0
— The Redistrict Network (@RedistrictNet) June 10, 2026
“The fact that this is a partisan gerrymander is as obvious as it is unconstitutional,” said Bradley Heard, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which represented the plaintiffs last month. “And while this unnecessary map is egregious in how it advantages Republicans and disadvantages Democrats, the people who will suffer the most if it is allowed to stand are once again Black and Brown communities, whose voices are consistently silenced in these redistricting battles."
Florida Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes, a DeSantis appointee who upheld the maps last month, declined to weigh in substantively on the question of whether the new map violated the FDA, but said it was more in line with the maps favored by the US Supreme Court in the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision, which struck at the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by effectively ending protections for districts drawn to give representation to nonwhite voters.
While Hawkes also did not weigh in on Republican arguments that the entire FDA should be thrown out because of Callais, he said it was ultimately fine for the court to defer ruling on DeSantis' map because "to the extent the court has to balance Florida’s FDA prohibition of improper partisan intent and the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection guarantees, it seems clear that the potential partisan intent is the lesser of the two evils."
The Callais decision has given Republicans a decisive upper hand in the redistricting wars that were kicked off last year when President Donald Trump called on red states to enact unprecedented hyperpartisan gerrymanders in an effort to beat back an expected Democratic wave in 2026.
An aggressive and explicitly racial gerrymander in Texas enacted without voter approval was upheld by the US Supreme Court last month, netting the GOP an expected five seats, and six other red states have redrawn maps to likely squeeze in one new Republican seat apiece.
And while GOP gains have been somewhat offset by California voters' approval of an amendment to allow Democrats to draw their own hyperpartisan maps, the US Supreme Court's refusal to stop the Virginia state supreme court from striking down of a voter-approved Democratic gerrymander dealt a critical blow to efforts to even the score, and Democrats have vanishingly few opportunities to make up ground before the coming midterms.
Florida Republicans blatantly violate their constitution and brutally gerrymander their map without a single vote = 100% legal.
Virginians vote to change their constitution so they can temporarily offset right wing gerrymandering = 100% illegal.
America is a banana republic. https://t.co/vTer29RSqQ
— Micah Erfan (@micah_erfan) June 11, 2026
Florida represents yet another notch in the win column for Republicans, but opponents say they will attempt to fight the gerrymander ahead of future elections.
"The Florida Supreme Court's failure to stop this brazen partisan power grab is not only an assault on democracy, but an abdication of its duty to the people of Florida," said Genesis Robinson, the executive director of the voting rights group Equal Ground. "Courts are meant to serve as a check on government overreach and a safeguard against constitutional violations, but, once again, when Floridians needed that protection most, the court declined to intervene."
"The time to protect voters from irreparable harm is before another election takes place under this map," he added. "And while we remain committed to ensuring that Florida's constitutional protections are fully upheld, Florida voters deserve fair maps, fair representation, and a democracy that works for everyone now."
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