Meanwhile, These Americans Are Being Poisoned

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http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a55169/epa-regulation-corporations-poison/

Meanwhile, These Americans Are Being Poisoned

But they're not in the Rust Belt, so you won't hear about it.
By Charles P. Pierce
May 19, 2017


Out in the country, far from the feeding frenzy, and at some remove from those now media-drenched Rust Belt hamlets where a huge percentage of the elite political media have set up shop to take the pulse of the unfortunate suckers therein, there are places where the policies of this administration—and its general attitude toward some of the fundamental responsibilities of the national government, which has also been the attitude of conservative politics toward those same responsibilities for the past four decades—are making people very, very sick.

Start in Torrance, in California, where, two years ago, a massive explosion in an ExxonMobil Refinery scattered toxic dust over a populated area. It could have been infinitely worse. From TruthOut:

A hulking 40-ton chunk of debris from the refinery's Electrostatic Precipitator narrowly avoided hitting a tank containing tens of thousands of pounds of highly toxic modified hydrofluoric acid. The damning findings of a Chemical Safety Board (CSB) review of the accident were made public earlier this month. Among some of the problems identified in the report: the refinery repeatedly violated ExxonMobil's corporate safety standards leading up to the incident, while multiple gaps existed in the refinery's safety systems. "It was only sheer luck that the hydrofluoric acid tank wasn't hit," said Dr. Sally Hayati, president of the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance. If it had been hit, the collision could have released a toxic ground-hugging cloud with the potential to kill for nine miles and cause serious and irreversible injuries for up to 16 miles under worst-case scenario projections, she added.

President Obama tried to do something about that, and to protect our brave first responders, whom we honor until it starts costing us real money, but a proposed EPA rule got lobbied into paralysis and then the election happened.

Now, with energy industry sublet Scott Pruitt running the EPA, it looks like the regulation is pretty much dead.

The new rule -- the first significant updates to the RMP in some 20 years -- impacts roughly 12,500 facilities, including oil refineries, large chemical manufacturers, pulp and paper mills, and even wastewater treatment plants and food packing plants. And it addresses plant safety in a number of critical areas, such as emergency response, accident prevention and information disclosure. After an accident occurs, for example, facilities are required to conduct more thorough investigations to better understand what caused them. In some cases, an independent third party must be brought in to conduct its own audit. Facilities must be more transparent about certain information critical for first responders and local residents, such as what chemicals are stored on site. And as is pointed out in the amendment, "one of the factors that can contribute to the severity of chemical accidents is a lack of effective coordination between a facility and local emergency responders." As such, facilities are required to better coordinate with first responders and local emergency planning committees.

But…jobs!