CPSC withdraws the notice of proposed rulemaking to establish a safety standard for lithium-Ion batteries used in mobility products
In recent weeks, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted three to two to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) regarding the new safety standard for lithium ion batteries. Since that occurred, however, Trump fired all three Democratic commissioners on May 8th, 2025. As a result, the remaining two Republican commissioners acting chair Peter Feldman and commissioner Douglas Dziak voted unanimously on May 13th to withdraw the notice of proposed rulemaking to establish a safety standard for lithium-Ion batteries used in mobility products and electrical systems of mobility products containing such batteries. The very terse order can be read here.
As some of you may know, the draft safety standard was referred to the Office of information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews and coordinates proposed regulations to ensure that they comply with President Trump's agenda. No word on what happened with this NPR with respect to that department. However, it doesn't really matter as the notice of proposed rulemaking has been killed.
As you also probably know from reading this blog, there is proposed legislation on lithium ion batteries in mobility devices and it's still moving through Congress. The house passed HR 973 on April 28th 2025 and if the Senate goes along with this and also passes it under its companion bill, it would then require the CPSC to only make the three current UL voluntary standards, UL 2271, UL 2849 and UL2272, mandatory. The notice of proposed rulemaking would have gone beyond the voluntary standards for all of the reasons laid out in the notice of proposed rulemaking. Of course, industry would have been given an opportunity to offer suggestions to the notice of proposed rulemaking, but that will not happen at this point. And of course we are not sure at this point if the legislation will pass the senate. Also if the three CPSC commissions successfully sue for their jobs back this could be reversed again, of course adding more uncertainty to manufacturers already full plate of “tariff uncertainty”. Watch this space for further developments.
