6,000 small dry cleaners face $40-60K forced equipment swap with no viable financing path

The EPA's December 2024 final rule under TSCA mandates a 10-year phaseout of perchloroethylene in all dry cleaning operations. Approximately 6,000 dry cleaners still use perc, the vast majority of which are small, family-owned businesses. Switching to professional wet cleaning equipment costs $40,000-$60,000 per shop. This matters because most of these businesses operate on razor-thin margins, have limited access to capital, and cannot absorb a five-figure mandatory equipment replacement. State grant programs exist but are inadequate: California offered $10,000, Massachusetts offered $10,000, and Washington offered $40,000 -- none covering the full transition cost. The EPA itself acknowledged it 'has not been able to reliably estimate the number of dry cleaning facility closures' this will cause. The structural root cause is that the rule addresses the health externality (correctly) but provides no federal financing mechanism, SBA loan program, or tax credit specifically designed for this transition, leaving small operators to figure it out alone.