Photo of Warren Lehrenbaum

Warren Lehrenbaum represents individual companies and trade associations before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he advocates on behalf of individual products as well as broad policy issues.

Warren serves as a member on the firm's Environment and Natural Resources Group Steering Committee. His practice focuses on chemical regulation and biotechnology issues arising under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), the Federal Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and related State and Federal laws. He assists large and small companies in the chemical and biotechnology fields obtain regulatory approvals for their products, and he helps clients address ongoing compliance and product stewardship issues. Warren's counseling in these areas typically involves issues such as: assisting manufacturers of chemical or biotechnology products understand their registration, premarket notification, testing and reporting obligations, and assisting manufacturers of crop protection products in protecting their data compensation rights. He also assists companies in their day-to-day compliance with pollution control obligations under the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and other statutes.

A substantial portion of Warren's practice is devoted to helping clients develop and implement corporate compliance programs, including environmental auditing programs and comprehensive environmental management systems. He also assists clients in identifying instances of potential non-compliance and defending against administrative investigations and enforcement actions. Warren has negotiated successful settlements in numerous enforcement cases, often involving complex supplemental enforcement projects (SEPs) and challenging economic benefit and BEN model issues.

On January 31, 2024, EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed two proposed rules related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and corrective action authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). These rulemakings follow from a 2021 announcement covered in a prior Crowell client alert, adding to the growing number of pending PFAS-related proposals submitted by EPA.Continue Reading EPA Continues to Push Toward Regulation of PFAS By Proposing Two More New Rules Under RCRA

On September 28, 2023, EPA released a long-anticipated final rule aimed at gathering information on products in commerce that contain PFAS chemicals.  As defined in the regulation, the term “PFAS” includes a group of materials known as fluoropolymers, which are widely used in gaskets, tubing, electrical wiring, composite materials, printed circuit boards, membranes and many other manufactured articles.  Under EPA’s new regulation, any company that has imported any of these types of articles containing fluoropolymers (or any other PFAS chemical) at any time since 2011 will be required to submit extensive information to EPA regarding those products and activities.  The pre-publication version of the final rule can be found here.Continue Reading Importers of Equipment, Machinery and Electronics Beware: You’re Probably Subject to EPA’s New PFAS Regulation

Retailers need to prepare for a major shift in chemical regulation policy recently announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that could affect a broad range of products currently being sold in the US. Under this sweeping new policy, EPA plans to address chemical risks by directly regulating articles that are manufactured with those chemicals. Crowell environmental attorneys, Warren Lehrenbaum and Jennifer Giblin, addressed this and other important developments at EPA in a wide-ranging question and answer session with the Retail Industry Leaders Association on Tuesday, October 5, 2021.
Continue Reading EPA’s Shift In Chemical and Hazardous Materials Regulation and What Retailers Can Expect

Two important developments from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are potentially significant to the retail industry, but may have escaped widespread attention in light of recent worldwide events. Somewhat unusually, both proposals are administered by EPA under TSCA, despite the fact that TSCA typically applies to chemical products, not manufactured articles.

Comment and compliance deadlines

EPA has proposed a new rule to restrict the use of seven toluene diisocyanates (TDIs) in consumer products.  TDIs are commonly used in the production of polyurethanes found in foams, coatings, elastomers, adhesives and sealants used in consumer products.  Flexible foams (for cushioning) and rigid foams (for insulation) are the chief uses for TDI.

Published

Retailers face serious challenges in complying with their obligations under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) and other federal environmental statutes in light of the wide variety of retail products covered by EPA’s waste disposal regulations. EPA recently expressed its intent to consider future rulemaking under RCRA governing retail products unsold, returned, or removed from