Welcome to Industrials Regulatory News and Trends. In this regular bulletin, DLA Piper lawyers provide concise updates on key developments in the industrials sector to help you navigate the ever-changing business, legal, and regulatory landscape.
Nissan plans to increase US production in wake of new tariffs. On April 4, Nissan announced that it plans to continue to operate two shifts manufacturing the Rogue midsize crossover SUV at its Smyrna, Tennessee plant. Nissan indicated that it is taking this action to maintain production volumes in the US, in response to US auto import tariffs. This decision marks a reversal from the automaker’s prior announcement that it would scale back to a single shift at the Tennessee plant.
UK company will double size of a new US factory. In the wake of the recent tariff announcements by President Donald Trump, the UK-based company JCB said April 3 that it will double the size of a new factory now under construction in San Antonio, Texas. The company manufactures construction equipment. JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford said, “JCB has been in business for 80 years this year and we are well accustomed to change. The United States is the largest market for construction equipment in the world and President Trump has galvanized us into evaluating how we can make even more products in the USA, which has been an important market for JCB since we sold our first machine there in 1964.” The original plan for a 500,000-square-foot factory in San Antonio has now been revised, doubling its size to one million square feet.
Coal-fired plants receive presidential exemption from Clean Air Act standards via unprecedented email application process. On April 9, President Donald Trump announced that he was issuing a presidential exemption from Clean Air Act emissions standards to a number of US coal-fired power plants. While the precise number of these plants is unclear, the Colstrip Generating Plant in Montana – which according to EPA data has the highest fine particulate matter emission rate of any coal-burning plant in the US – is reportedly among them. The power plants received the exemptions through an unprecedented email-application process that the EPA quietly opened on March 24 and closed on March 31. The EPA informational sheet about the process stated that the mailbox was created “to allow the regulated community to request a Presidential Exemption under section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act” (CAA), then went on to list nine particular CAA emissions standards that affect such industries as copper smelting, chemical manufacturing, coal plants, and iron and steel manufacturing. The informational sheet, which at this writing is still online, notes, “The Clean Air Act allows the President to exempt stationary sources of air pollution from compliance with any standard or limitation under section 112 for up to two years if the technology to implement the standard is not available and it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so.” The existence of the mailbox and the exemption-via-email process received scant media attention – the agency did not even issue a press release about it, simply setting up the mailbox and posting the informational sheet.
Lutnick: Tariffs on smartphones, computers, other electronics are coming. As President Donald Trump’s full package of tariffs on foreign goods continues to be revealed, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made clear that critical technology products from China would face separate new tariffs within the next two months. The current pause in tariffs on those products, he said, is only temporary. President Trump, Lutnick stated, intends to enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers, and other electronics products, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new duties would fall outside Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs, under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 percent last week. Also see our hub, Tracking Trump tariffs.
Automaker layoffs. On April 14, temporary layoffs at GM and Stellantis vehicle manufacturing factories in Michigan went into effect for hundreds of auto workers. While the carmakers described the layoffs as temporary and not a result of US tariffs on imported vehicles and equipment, their separate statements indicate they continue to assess potential effects of those tariffs and evaluate actions they may take in response.
Job cuts. In March, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US-based employers announced 275,240 job cuts, a 60 percent increase over February. The firm stated that this was the third-highest monthly job loss total it has recorded since it began tracking such data in 1989. The only higher losses it has noted were in April and May 2020, in the early weeks of COVID-19. Reportedly, the country's unemployment rate rose in March to 4.2 percent, with job openings down from 7.8 million in February to 7.6 million. Against this backdrop, about 200,000 workers lately forced out of federal jobs are looking for work. On April 4, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that these thousands of workers could take future jobs in US factories created by the Administration’s tariff policies – their firings, he said, “will give us the labor we need for the new manufacturing.”
Senate Parliamentarian says California Clean Air Act waivers cannot be undone via the Congressional Review Act. On April 4, the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that the Senate cannot use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn California’s Clean Air Act preemption waivers, which grant the state authority to enact vehicle emissions standards that are more stringent than federal standards. The ruling came shortly after three Republican representatives introduced House resolutions aiming to disapprove those waivers: HJ Res 87, a CRA resolution that would reverse the EPA waiver for Advanced Clean Trucks; HR Res 88, another CRA resolution that would terminate “California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Advanced Clean Cars II” and accompanying waiver; and HJ Res 89, a CRA resolution that would terminate California’s heavy-duty “Omnibus” low-NOx rule and Advanced Clean Cars II. Soon after the parliamentarian announced her ruling, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) issued a statement suggesting that Congressional Republicans might nonetheless continue their attempt to end the waivers via the CRA process. Caputo said, “I will continue to address all options available to strike down these rules and eliminate the consequential impact they would make across our country.”
Illinois looks at adopting California’s clean vehicle standards. The Illinois Pollution Control Board is considering adopting California’s Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and Heavy-Duty Low NOx Omnibus Rules. Adoption of those standards would likely involve a phaseout of most sales of new gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles in Illinois over the next decade. The deadline for submitting comments to the Illinois Board is April 28. 2025. If the US Congress or EPA limits or eliminates Clean Air Act preemption waivers granted to California by the Biden Administration, Illinois would likely be precluded from adopting California’s vehicle emissions standards.
Two influential senators introduce bill to grant Congress more say over tariffs. On April 3, two senior US senators introduced a bill that would grant Congress more power over tariffs. The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), would “reaffirm” the role of Congress in setting and approving trade policy. If passed, the Trade Review Act of 2025 would require the President to notify lawmakers of an imposition or increase in tariffs within 48 hours, explaining his or her reasoning and providing analysis of the impact on US businesses and consumers. Congress would need to pass a joint resolution of approval for the new tariffs within 60 days or the additional taxes would expire, and it would also be able to end the tariffs at any time with a resolution of disapproval. Both of the co-sponsors are members of the Senate Finance Committee.
Democratic senators urge Administration to fund Biden-era energy projects. On April 2, more than two dozen US senators, all Democrats, urged Energy Secretary Chris Wright to follow laws that require his department to fund clean energy projects included in laws passed during the Biden Administration, including four hydrogen hubs that were part of the former president’s $7 billion effort to decarbonize the US economy. The department is considering cutting the funding to four of these hubs. The hubs are intended to jump-start the production of “clean hydrogen” and infrastructure to support steelmakers, cement plants, and other industrial users. “Our Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse and exclusive power to appropriate funds,” the senators wrote. “Once a law is properly enacted, the Constitution requires the President to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’”
California recycling department says it will enforce law on expanded polystyrene packaging. On April 4, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) issued an update on SB 54, the state’s expanded polystyrene (EPS) food service ware ban, saying that the ban will now be enforced by the department going forward. The EPS ban is a component of the state’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, passed in 2022. The law requires that in order to continue selling EPS products in the state, food service ware producers must show that all EPS-covered material has met a 25 percent recycling rate by the end of 2024. In its update, CalRecycle said that this requirement has not been met. “As a result, EPS producers are prohibited from selling, offering for sale, distributing or importing EPS food service ware, like single-use takeout containers and cups, in or into California,” CalRecycle wrote. Please also see our Plastics Legal Topics Hub.
From A to B: key issues in logistics and warehousing contracts. The latest episode of DLA Piper’s Better Contracts podcast series explores the dynamic landscape of the logistics sector and how businesses can use robust contracts to help manage risk and improve supply chain resilience. Listen here.
Legislators question FAA about outages of major airspace system. On April 3, a bipartisan group of six US lawmakers questioned the Federal Aviation Administration about recent outages of the agency’s Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system, which provides pilots, flight crews, and others with critical safety notices about what is happening in US airspace. The system suffered failures in February and March, once for more than three hours. The lawmakers, led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), stated in a letter that the FAA missed a congressionally mandated requirement to implement a modernized NOTAM system and backup system by September 2024. “While we are pleased that the backup system is in place as of July 2024 and was successfully activated during that outage, we are concerned about the past due implementation of a modernized NOTAM system, as required by law,” the legislators wrote.
Teledyne is awarded a new four-year contract for Army reconnaissance system. On April 9, Teledyne FLIR Defense, based in Thousand Oaks, California, announced it has received a new four-year contract to continue upgrading the mounted reconnaissance system on the Army’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBCRV). The NBCRV, also known as the M1135 variant of the Stryker Family of Vehicles, hosts a large number of sensors that monitor nuclear, biological and chemical levels on the battlefield and provide feedback to soldiers. This latest $74.2 million contract adds to a five-year $168.3 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract that Teledyne won last November for initial production of the upgraded NBCRV sensor suite. The company says it will use the latest contract to fund three initiatives: a new, expanded sensor suite design, delivery of six prototypes to the Army, and government testing.
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