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U.S. Response: White House Set to Offer Chemical Plant Security Legislation The Bush administration is expected to send to Congress this month its own proposal for new chemical plant security legislation, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, March 19). The White House proposal will not require chemical plants to adopt “safer technologies,” which would replace potentially dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives, according to the Journal. The safer technologies provision is included in a chemical plant security bill reintroduced in Congress this year by Senator Jon Corzine (D-N.J). Instead, the White House proposal focuses more on security upgrades at plants. “Ours is a different approach,” said a Bush administration official. “I think there’s concern about the amount of regulation we want,’ the official added. The White House proposal also would make the Homeland Security Department the lead agency on chemical plant security, said a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee staff member. Corzine’s bill would place the Environmental Protection Agency in the lead, according to the staffer. Corzine has criticized the Bush administration’s proposal, saying it will not do enough to prevent chemical plants from being targeted by terrorists. “Hiring more guards and building higher fences is only part of the solution,” Corzine said in a statement. “Security also means making chemical facilities less attractive targets and less dangerous if an attack were to succeed. Encouraging industry to use safer technologies will serve this purpose,” he added (Jacob Schlesinger, Wall Street Journal, April 2).
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