PFAS: Essential to America’s Supply Chains

PFAS: Critical to Resilient Supply Chains

Recent disruptions to several of America’s critical supply chains have caused shortages and have acted as a drag on economic and job growth. The Biden Administration has made supply chain resilience a priority, ordering a review of four especially important supply chains: semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, critical minerals, and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

One group of substances critical to resilient supply chains is PFAS, a diverse group of chemistries essential to advancing American manufacturing’s global competitiveness. They make possible the semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and other products we rely on every day. One subset of PFAS chemicals, fluoropolymers, are necessary to advance 5G technologies, Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and a host of renewable energy generation technologies.

Properly Regulating PFAS Without Damaging America’s Supply Chain

American manufacturers must be assured they will have access to critical chemistries needed to innovate and compete globally while chemical manufacturers need to have the regulatory certainty to be able to support their customers.

Regulatory uncertainty created by an overly broad approach to PFAS regulation could distort the playing field, incentivize product sourcing from outside the United States for critical industry sectors, and drive up prices for American industry and consumers.

This directly contradicts the Administration’s objectives of enhancing U.S. supply chain resiliency and strengthening environmental protection.

Smart regulation and a consistent approach throughout federal and state governments can simultaneously address concerns about potential health and environmental risk, while also allowing a robust supply of industrially vital PFAS chemistries and the critical products
that rely on them.