On Dec. 22, 2025, EPA proposed to grant a petition by Dow Inc. which would remove the chemical compound 2-Butoxyethyl benzoate (2-BEB) from the glycol ethers category of the Clean Air Act’s (CAA’s) list of hazardous air pollutants. In its announcement of the proposed delisting, EPA found “there is adequate data on the health and environmental effects of 2-BEB to determine that emissions, ambient concentrations, bioaccumulation, or deposition of 2-BEB may not reasonably be anticipated to cause adverse human health or environmental effects.”
Since the CAA Amendments of 1990, only four substances have been removed from the hazardous air pollutants list, which catalogs pollutants linked to cancer, respiratory illness, and other serious health effects. Once a chemical is delisted, it is no longer subject to the CAA’s hazardous air pollution provisions.
EPA’s rule also proposed a new “streamlined approach” for reviewing future petitions to delist hazardous air pollutants. Previously, when EPA received a completed delisting petition, the agency published notice of the petition’s receipt in the Federal Register, providing the public with an early opportunity to comment on the proposed delisting. EPA would then conduct its technical review of the petition, during which “EPA considered all comments and data submitted during the [first] public comment period.” EPA would then publish its proposed decision to grant or deny the delisting petition in the Federal Register, providing a second public comment opportunity.
Under the new approach, EPA will no longer publish a notice when it receives a complete delisting petition and will only publish notice in the Federal Register after EPA’s technical review is complete and the agency is prepared to propose either granting or denying the delisting petition.
Comments on the new rule can be submitted until Feb. 20, 2026.