An investigation by ProPublica and The Guardian revealed that the EPA had calculated that one of the chemicals intended to serve as jet fuel was expected to cause cancer in 1 in 4 people exposed over their lifetime.
The risk from another of the plastic-based chemicals, an additive to marine fuel, was more than 1 million times higher than the agency usually considers acceptable — so high that everyone exposed continually over a lifetime would be expected to develop cancer, according to a document obtained through a public records request. The EPA had failed to note the sky-high cancer risk from the marine fuel additive in the agency’s document approving the chemical’s production. When ProPublica asked why, the EPA said it had “inadvertently” omitted it.
Extremely generally speaking: It more that industries are required to submit information and applications. The regulatory body then determines if it meets the legal minimum requirements.
The process of determining the latter is much slower than the former. The timeline can be as short as 60 days, depending. (I don’t think that’s the case here. I think this is years long. But studies take that long.) And industries also tend to fight every step of the way, even when caught flagrantly violating agreements, orders, and the plain text of the law.
So industries have incredible power and influence over their regulators as there is a very distinct political cycle to it. Most can wait the 4-8 years for party rule to swap.