The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced finalized amendments to a program designed to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents at 11,740 chemical plants across the United States, although industry groups have called the updates problematic, unworkable, and counter-productive.
EPA said in a press statement today that the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Rule—an update to the Risk Management Program (RMP) created by 1990’s Clean Air Act—requires stronger chemical facility measures for prevention, preparedness, and public transparency. “The final rule includes new safeguards such as identifying safer technologies and chemical alternatives, requiring implementation of safeguard measures in certain cases, more thorough incident investigations, and third-party auditing,” EPA said. EPA estimates that approximately 131 million people live within three miles of RMP facilities.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), however, said the rule is the latest in a “surge in misguided regulations” from EPA that undermine the ability of chemical manufacturers to create essential products in the US and to support the broader economy.
“We are very concerned EPA has decided to abandon a collaborative and data-driven process which has helped decrease chemical related incidents by nearly 80% since RMP was adopted,” Dr. Kimberly Wise White, vice president of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, said in a press statement “Instead, the Agency has decided to remove important regulatory safeguards and impose unworkable mandates that could jeopardize the safety of facilities that provide vital contributions to critical sectors, including food production, water purification and energy production.”
Specifically, ACC said the finalized rule ignores risks to national security, is not evidence-based, will significantly increase costs for chemical makers, and is considerably altered from the proposed rule announced in 2022.
“The final rule requires companies to broadly share detailed information about specific chemical hazards at their facilities, removing important safeguards put in place after the 9/11 attacks,” ACC said. It added that “EPA did not follow its own data generated under RMP showing that a small percentage of regulated facilities reported incidents. If it had done so, changes to the program would have focused on improving safety performance rather than creating sweeping new requirements for the facilities that have not had an incident.”
ACC also said the final rule more than triples the anticipated costs for implementation. This is due in large part to the new requirements related to the safer technology and alternatives analysis (STAA), which makes up more than 80% of the cost of the final rule. “Such a significant increase deserves careful review and consideration by the public to better understand the Agency’s rationale for including the requirements, along with the cost and time burden estimates that were used to generate these figures,” ACC said.
Finally, ACC said the EPA has “vastly expanded the scope of the rule,” since the 2022 proposal by adding a “requirement not only to conduct a STAA analysis, but also [to] conduct a separate practicability assessment in some cases and implement at least one passive measure.”
American Petroleum Institute (API) was also critical of the final RMP amendments. Vice President of Downstream Policy Will Hupman said in a statement that EPA has failed to demonstrate a need for such a rigid approach, “which could have adverse impacts to workers and consumers alike by undermining ongoing safety improvements, impacting energy production and diminishing the ability of U.S. refineries to compete in global markets.” Hupman singled out a requirement intended to discourage the use of HF alkylation technology which some refiners use to make gasoline and other high octane fuels. “Restricting the use of this proven technology could have significantly impact refiners’ ability to produce the fuels that American consumers’ rely on every day,” he added.
We remind, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) said it sees the European Commission’s Strategy on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership as a pivotal step toward addressing the challenges posed by the green and digital transition, adding that the chemical industry has an important role to play as the primary source of advanced materials’ value chains.
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