The regulatory and compliance landscape is changing. There is a flurry of state-level activity around public health issues and autonomy. Frustrations are mounting over uncertainty at the federal level. The global regulatory arena is growing more complex, with a shift toward longer-term issues that create data collection and reporting challenges.
AEM’s top regulatory and compliance experts recently provided an overview of what’s happening in 2025 and beyond during an AEM Member Education webinar held late last month. Following are highlights from the webinar.
State-Level Legislation
PFAS. Legislation has been on the dockets of several state legislatures over the past couple of years, and bills are being sponsored by both democrats and republicans. Nick Rudowich, AEM’s Director of State Affairs, said the overwhelming majority of these bills are negative toward industry’s use of PFAS, though there have been a few that slant positive toward manufacturers.
One positive piece of proposed legislation is in Indiana. It would establish a better definition of what PFAS is, as well as remove the polymers that are critical to the equipment manufacturing industry.
“Those polymers could still be used in critical industries like ours,” Rudowich said. “Our team is heavily engaged in Indiana. We’re working with in-state partners to help push that bill along as best we can. It failed at the last minute during the last session. Now we hope it can get pushed across the finish line during this year’s session.”
On the negative side of the spectrum, Rudowich said Illinois is an area of intense interest.
“Illinois has a full PFAS ban up during the 2025 legislative session,” Rudowich pointed out, adding that his team in Illinois is actively engaged in advocating against a full ban.
Separately, Illinois has a PFAS registration bill that’s similar to what passed in Minnesota. “We’re starting to see these spread out around the country now,” Rudowich said. “One passed in Maine a few years ago. We’re also seeing bills pop up in places you normally wouldn’t expect, like Montana.”
AEM offers reference materials to help OEMs and their supply chains comply with the EPA PFAS Reporting and Recordkeeping rule. Learn more.
Emissions. California is seeing some potential scope creep pertaining to emissions.
“There is a bill that would give CARB increased regulatory authority to create rules relating to indirect sources of emissions,” Rudowich said. If passed, this bill would expand CARB’s scope to include trucks delivering good, yard trucks, and even forklifts.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR). This is a newer issue that has been popping up across the country over the past few legislative sessions. As Rudowich explained, it essentially addresses who is responsible for the disposal or recycling of a battery. AEM’s State Affairs team is looking into 10 proposed bills that would place more burden on the manufacturer.
Autonomous machinery. In California, AEM’s State Affairs team has been working with in-state AEM members to educate legislators on the rapid development of autonomous machinery. There are also several commodity groups in California who are lining up alongside AEM on this issue. “We’re getting a really good reception in the California legislature so far,” Rudowich said.
Case in point, a decades-old regulation in California is being revisited that would pave the way for autonomous equipment to flourish in the state. The existing 1970s law, which ironically has nothing to do with autonomy, contains certain language that prevents the deployment of autonomous machines. Nick Tindall, AEM’s Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs, said California’s Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board has established an advisory committee to begin working on a new regulation. According to Tindall, AEM staff and member companies will participate on that committee. “Hopefully we’ll see clear guidance on a regulatory path forward next year,” Tindall said.
Tindall and his team are also hoping for a clearer path forward at the federal level.
AEM’s Safety & Product Leadership Department helps its members grow and maintain market access through safety, sustainability, and shared solutions. Learn more.
Uncertainty in D.C.
“We are truly in a state of unprecedented regulatory uncertainty at the federal level,” Tindall said. That uncertainty leaves the results of several regulatory decisions hanging in the balance. Tindall pointed to a few important ones, including:
- The potential withdrawal of OSHA’s heat and illness prevention regulation
- Various pesticide-related regulations from the EPA
- EPA’s proposed withdrawal of the risk assessment rule that allows it to regulate greenhouse gases, which would enable other actions on things like the power plant rule
There is also ongoing interest in what’s known as the Chevron Doctrine. Tindall said much of the business community was pleased with last June’s Supreme Court decision that narrowed the scope of how a government agency can interpret a law when enacting regulation. The new ruling prevents an agency from doing things it wasn’t authorized to do, while also preventing inaction on things Congress has directed it to do.
Finally, President Trump signed an executive order stating that for every new regulation that is created by an agency, two must be repealed. This is creating additional uncertainty as to what the regulatory priorities will be, and what organizations like AEM may be facing in the coming months. In the meantime, Tindall said AEM will continue engaging with numerous federal agencies to make sure AEM members’ concerns are heard.
Learn more about AEM’s advocacy efforts and research, how to join our grassroots campaigns, and connect with policymakers.
Growing Complexity Around the World
The global regulatory environment has expanded significantly over the past 25 years and is now poised for a new era of change and complexity. Jason Malcore, AEM’s Senior Director of Safety & Product Leadership, said there are some general themes that will likely play out over the next several years.
New global players. Countries with well-established regulatory regimes, such as the U.S. and Canada, will continue to create new rules. But the pace of new regulations will likely be much faster from other countries such as India, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, along with Gulf State nations.
Malcore said a common approach will be to create copycat rules that are patterned after those that already exist elsewhere. Examples include emissions standards in Mexico, Columbia, and Peru; product safety rules in India and Saudi Arabia; and chemical standards in Saudi Arabia that are patterned after RoHS and PFAS rules in Canada, Australia, and Japan.
Changing regulatory focus. Malcore said there is also a shifting emphasis toward longer-term issues such as sustainability and chronic chemical management. This is a departure from past strategy that was geared toward solving immediate issues such as noise, emissions, and worker safety. Future regulatory priorities will likely focus on things like recyclability, climate change, and chemical hazards.
More data collection requirements. As a result of that shift in regulatory focus, the need for data collection will increase significantly.
“These new rules won’t just be about understanding the immediate potential hazards you might do in a risk assessment,” Malcore pointed out. “They will be about understanding where the chemicals are coming from, how carbon is getting into your product, etc. These are rules that are popping up that require huge amounts of data and a deep understanding of our supply chains.”
It’s not only the obvious hazards like PFAS reporting. Malcore said things like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the EU Deforestation Act, the Canada Plastics Registry, the EU Battery Regulation, and many others will have an impact on a manufacturer’s data collection requirements moving forward.
Supply chain obstacles. Manufacturers could face challenges in mining all this additional data from deep within their supply chains. Suppliers will often lack the resources and experience needed to respond to the data requests. To further complicate matters, there is no harmonized approach to asking for and reporting much of this data, which will lead to a proliferation of administration activity that makes the entire data collection process clumsy, slow and inconsistent.
Unharmonized rulemaking. As new global players accelerate their regulatory efforts, the challenges derived from a lack of harmonization will only be exacerbated.
The bottom line is that manufacturers are at the forefront of unprecedented regulatory times. It’s important to remain engaged with AEM and your fellow AEM members to stay on top of what’s happening here at home and around the world.
About AEM Member Education Webinars
AEM members have exclusive access to help them stay on top of emerging issues and trends via member education webinars. Experts break down industry issues and pinpoint critical changes in the landscape to help attendees refine their company’s strategy.
For more information on the upcoming series of member education webinars, contact your Account Success Advisor.
