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COMPANIES ASK TRUMP’S EPA TO HIDE POTENTIAL DISASTERS
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Katya Schwenk
February 7, 2025
The Lever
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_ Biden increased transparency around the risks of chemical disaster
— industry lobbyists just asked Trump’s new EPA chief Lee Zeldin
to roll that back. _
Firefighters battle a petrochemical fire at a chemical facility in
Texas., AP Photo/David J. Phillip
The chemical industry is asking the Environmental Protection Agency,
now helmed by industry-friendly
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Trump appointee Lee Zeldin, to hide chemical facilities at the highest
risk of disaster and their safety records from public view.
On Jan. 30, more than a dozen chemical industry groups sent a letter
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to Zeldin demanding he take “urgent action” to roll back
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversight of facilities that are
at the highest risk for chemical disasters. The trade groups also
requested the agency “immediately shut down” a government website
that makes public where these facilities are located and what
dangerous toxins they hold.
Each year, dozens of chemical accidents
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occur at these high-risk facilities, sometimes forcing entire
communities to evacuate or shelter in place. In June 2023, a massive
chemical fire
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at one of these plants in Southwest Louisiana, a region where such
chemical accidents are particularly frequent
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plume of toxic gas into the air and forced residents within three
miles of the facility to shelter in place. Yet reducing EPA oversight
of these facilities has for years been a priority for chemical
lobbyists.
The chemical lobby’s new letter is the latest industry push to
unwind environmental protections instated under the Biden
administration. And chemical interests could find an ally in Zeldin,
who voted against measures
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to crack down on cancer-causing “forever chemicals
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during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Zeldin has already received the enthusiastic endorsement of chemical
lobbyists. The American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s
biggest lobbying group, urged lawmakers to support Zeldin’s
nomination
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in January, saying his record in Congress showed he was a
“thoughtful leader who understood you can protect the environment
and human health without imposing unreasonable and unnecessary
regulations.”
The American Chemistry Council was among the signatories of the Jan.
30 letter. Various other industry interest groups also signed on,
including the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the Corn
Refiners Association, and the Fertilizer Institute. The lobbyists
first asked for a meeting with Zeldin — but they also emphasized
that they wanted to see swift action to undo Biden-era regulations on
dangerous chemical plants.
“If they were to roll back [the regulations], it would be
devastating,” said Darya Minovi, a senior analyst for the Center for
Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a research
group. According to Minovi, communities that live near these
facilities, which are at high risk of chemical disasters and exposure,
had asked “for years” for the strengthened regulations enacted
under former President Joe Biden.
At the same time, Minovi added, the chemical industry letter was not a
surprise. Chemical lobbyists have for years been fighting
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regulations meant to prevent chemical disasters — and with Zeldin
now in charge of the top federal environmental watchdog, they are
launching a brazen new fight.
“They Don’t Want The Public To Know”
Chemical facilities handling the most dangerous, reactive chemicals
are required under the Clean Air Act of 1970 to submit risk management
plans to environmental regulators, a provision meant to help prevent
devastating chemical accidents.
There are hundreds of facilities around the country subject to EPA’s
Risk Management Program. Despite decades of mitigation efforts,
accidents at these facilities are still concerningly frequent,
research has found
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and communities that surround them are at high risk for pollution and
environmental impacts.
And as _The Lever _reported
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last October, many facilities that process reactive chemicals are not
covered by the EPA regulations, like a chemical plant that spewed a
toxic plume of chlorine gas in Conyers, Georgia, in September 2023,
forcing residents to evacuate. That’s thanks to the chemical
industry, which has fought for loopholes in the regulations.
For years, environmentalists fought for the EPA to make public what
chemical facilities were covered by its Risk Management Program rule
as well as the chemicals that they handled and the safety protocols
they had in place. Such transparency was critical for nearby
communities and the public, activists argued.
In March 2024, regulators revealed a public website
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allowed viewers to search for high-risk chemical facilities —
revealing the toxins they handle and details about past accidents and
safety violations.
According to the database, there are 228 high-risk facilities in Los
Angeles County alone.
_High-risk chemical facilities in Los Angeles County. (EPA Risk
Management Plan __search tool_
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“This is information that the public deserves to know — what the
facilities are that are near them, what types of chemicals they deal
with,” said Adam Kron, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, an
environmental advocacy group. “It’s really vital information, but
also very basic information.”
Now, the chemical industry wants to make this information secret again
— alleging that making this information public presents security
risks for chemical facilities.
But Kron said he was skeptical of the industry’s claims that the
website, which contains no confidential or proprietary information,
presented security risks. “I think they just don’t want the public
to know — because that will force change,” Kron said. And he noted
that companies may also be concerned about hits to their reputation
when they were forced to reveal accident history or the dangerous
chemicals they were using.
As of Feb. 7, the EPA data tool remains online
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dark — like webpages mentioning the climate crisis
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as _The Lever _reported — advocates worry that soon, a critical
accountability tool for communities in the vicinity of hazardous
chemical plants will also be taken down.
In the letter to Zeldin, the industry also pushed for the EPA to roll
back regulations of high-risk chemical facilities that were
strengthened under the Biden administration.
For the last several years, as different administrations have come
into power, the Risk Management Program rules have been repeatedly
strengthened and then repealed. Biden, during his term, restored many
of the Obama-era provisions that President Donald Trump repealed
during his first administration.
Biden also added new requirements for high-risk chemical plants, like
requiring chemical processors to consider the impact of climate change
and to upgrade to newer, safer technologies.
These new rules are now the target of the chemical industry.
_The Lever_ is a nonpartisan, reader-supported investigative news
outlet that holds accountable the people and corporations manipulating
the levers of power. The organization was founded in 2020 by David
Sirota, an award-winning journalist and Oscar-nominated writer who
served as the presidential campaign speechwriter for Bernie Sanders.
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