{"id":39277,"date":"2014-12-12T14:01:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=39277"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:01:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:01:30","slug":"tragedies-in-texas-why-senators-say-new-chemical-safety-rules-are-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/12\/12\/tragedies-in-texas-why-senators-say-new-chemical-safety-rules-are-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedies In Texas: Why Senators Say New Chemical Safety Rules Are Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26838\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-26838\" alt=\"Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Jason Reyes walks past the site of an apartment complex destroyed by the deadly fertilizer plant explosion in West. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/04\/11633341_H22070715-300x203.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/04\/11633341_H22070715-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/04\/11633341_H22070715-620x421.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by REUTERS \/POOL\/LANDOV<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Jason Reyes walks past the site of an apartment complex destroyed by the deadly fertilizer plant explosion in West.<\/p><\/div>\n<h4><em>Accidents at facilities that handle dangerous chemicals in Texas were at the center of a hearing in Washington.<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>Accidents at facilities that handle dangerous chemicals in Texas were at the center of a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epw.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&amp;Hearing_ID=b2085dfd-ecb0-3b54-db5e-d2ed8a7730eb\" target=\"_blank\">hearing in Washington<\/a>. Some senators are pressing for quick action to reduce the risk of deadly chemical leaks and explosions. They wanted to know if there\u2019s been any progress since President Obama issued an executive order to improve chemical safety, an order that followed the fertilizer explosion in the city of West.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, said she was disappointed that \u201clittle progress\u201d had been made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we know there are problems because they keep happening. And people are dying, and people are going to the hospital,\u201d said Boxer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/181076978&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Other members of the Senate committee used a recent example of yet another deadly chemical accident.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had tragedies like the DuPont Chemical plant in La Porte Texas. And these incidents aren\u2019t limited to Texas, they\u2019re a national problem,\u201d said Senator Al Franken, D-Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonmatters.org\/segments\/segment-b\/2014\/11\/18\/what-went-wrong-at-the-la-porte-dupont-plant?__utma=11865261.921693666.1416242356.1418313613.1418331070.88&amp;__utmb=11865261.42.8.1418334141816&amp;__utmc=11865261&amp;__utmx=-&amp;__utmz=11865261.1417019646.38.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&amp;__utmv=-&amp;__utmk=6220787\" target=\"_blank\">deadly accidents at the DuPont plant<\/a>\u00a0last month and in West last year were used as examples of why new federally-enforced rules are needed. The rules would compel companies to identify risks and come up with procedures to protect workers and nearby residents.<\/p>\n<p>David Michaels with the Department of Labor testified that in both Texas calamities, people killed were people who\u2019d rushed in to help: in West, volunteer firefighters and in La Porte, fellow workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese workers are heroes. And they deserve that,\u201d Michaels told the committee.<\/p>\n<p>He said workers deserve comprehensive nationwide standards which he promised that regulators would be proposing next year. Industry groups contend\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/news\/federal-investigators-chemical-industry-has-a-safety-crisis\/\">new regulations are not needed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also released today was an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.markey.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/RMP%20Facilities%20in%20the%20United%20States%20as%20of%20December%202014.pdf\">analysis by the Congressional Research Service<\/a>\u00a0prepared for Senator Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts. It found that Texas has more facilities with dangerous chemicals than any other state.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texpirg.org\/\">Texas Public Interest Research Group<\/a>\u00a0said the report was important to Texas where earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, now governor-elect,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/06\/16\/curious-about-explosive-chemicals-near-you-texas-attorney-general-says-its-secret\/\">stirred controversy by ordering information<\/a>\u00a0on dangerous chemicals compiled by the Department of State Health Services be kept secret from the public for security reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accidents at facilities that handle dangerous chemicals in Texas were at the center of a hearing in Washington. Accidents at facilities that handle dangerous chemicals in Texas were at the center of a\u00a0hearing in Washington. Some senators are pressing for quick action to reduce the risk of deadly chemical leaks and explosions. They wanted to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[296],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39277"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39283,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39277\/revisions\/39283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}