More than 30 explosions and serious accidents have occurred at the nation’s industrial plants and refineries in the past year alone.
Yet according to a newly-published report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) under President Trump continues to delay enactment of the Chemical Disaster Rule, a set of regulations that could have prevented – or at least mitigated – many of these incidents.
Chemical Disaster Rule Would Have Improved Safety at 1,200 Plants and Refineries
The Chemical Disaster Rule was proposed in the wake of the 2013 West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people, injured 160, and destroyed dozens of buildings in the Central Texas community.
Intended to improve the prevention, detection, and response to plant explosions and chemical accidents, the regulations were finalized by the outgoing Obama Administration in December 2016 and slated to take effect in March 2017. However, intense industry lobbying convinced the Trump Administration to delay enactment of the Chemical Disaster Rule until at least February 2019.
The decision to delay the Chemical Disaster Rule was met with fierce opposition by proponents who claim its enactment would lead to significant safety improvements at more than 1,200 industrial facilities throughout the United States, including chemical plants, paper mills, and refineries, among others.
Although nearly a dozen state attorneys general have filed suit seeking to force enactment of the regulations, the Trump Administration has so far refused to reconsider its position.
33 Explosions and Accidents Have Occurred Since Trump Delayed the Chemical Disaster Rule
Released on April 3rd, “A Disaster in the Making” cites 33 incidents, including explosions, fires and chemical releases, that have occurred at the nation’s refineries and industrial plants since the Trump Administration halted enactment of the Chemical Disaster Rule on March 14, 2017.
The report was commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists and 9 other major environmental groups to highlight the importance of the delayed regulations.
“The Chemical Disaster Rule includes much-needed improvements to the EPA’s Clean Air Act Risk Management Program (RMP) and would prevent and reduce chemical disasters, hazardous releases and resulting chemical exposures, while strengthening emergency preparedness and coordination with local first responders,” the groups said in a statement announcing the report’s publication.
“When developing the rule, the EPA determined that prior protections failed to prevent over 2,200 chemical accidents around the country during a 10-year period, including about 150 incidents per year that caused reportable harm.”
Dozens of Safety Regulations Weakened, Eliminated During Trump’s First Year in Office
The decision to delay the Chemical Disaster Rule is just one example of the Trump Administration’s campaign to significantly rollback vital workplace and environmental safety regulations.
In fact, during the President’s first year in office, the U.S. Department of Transportation alone weakened or eliminated more than a dozen critical safety and regulatory protections designed to prevent fatal bus and truck accidents, detect sleep disorders among commercial drivers, and reduce catastrophic pipeline explosions and accidents.
Under Trump, the Department of Interior has also been working to gut many of the offshore drilling regulations enacted by the Obama Administration in the wake of the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion.
The Trump Administration has even pushed to eliminate the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, the highly-respected agency responsible for investigating major chemical disasters.
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