The person leading the EPA’s Region 6 in Dallas is nearly as important to Louisiana industry and the state’s Department of Environmental Quality as the appointment of Scott Pruitt to the agency’s top administrative post. After all, that’s who they typically deal with on a day-to-day basis.
While Sam Coleman is current acting administrator for the region—comprised of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico—no announcement has yet been made about a permanent replacement, 10/12 Industry Report details in a new feature in its current quarterly issue.
DEQ Secretary Chuck Carr Brown says that’s not unusual. “That has been the talk of everyone in this industry,” Brown says, “but the administrator [Pruitt] is not far behind when it comes to appointments, from a historical perspective.”
Brown hopes to maintain a close relationship with Region 6 leadership, but much is in limbo as an environmental paradigm shift in Washington begins to impact regional offices. Some EPA actions have already ruffled the feathers of environmental groups. On June 9, Pruitt’s EPA delayed the effective date of the agency’s Risk Management Plan Rule until Feb. 19, 2019. The rule, one of the agency’s last actions under President Obama, requires facilities to develop and submit an RMP every five years and was meant to address issues raised by a June 2013 explosion at Williams Olefins in Geismar and an April 2013 Texas fertilizer plant explosion.
The EPA says the rule’s postponement was necessary to review objections raised by petitioners to the final rule and to consider other issues.
Louisiana Chemical Association President Greg Bowser says the RMP rule’s postponement is a good thing, adding that future regulations should be based upon science rather than emotion. “The greatest concern is that we end up proposing rules that are not necessarily science-based,” Bowser adds.
“I think there must be a dialogue, and we should go where science takes us. When you start getting these emotional reactions and there’s no reason to do it other than to appeal to a certain constituency, I think that creates a problem. Not just for our industry, but for business in general.”
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