Chemical plants bristling at bill

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced legislation Wednesday that could potentially allow the federal government to go into privately owned chemical plants and mandate certain processing changes and even make product substitutions—all in the name of fighting terrorism. To say the bill has caught the attention of a number of interests in Louisiana would be an understatement, as there are nearly 100 chemical plants in the state employing somewhere in the neighborhood of 24,000 workers, according to the Louisiana Chemical Association. The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 would identify plants that contain “substances of concern” and permit the Homeland Security Department to make changes to reduce security risks, such as telling plant operators to switch to processing a less-volatile chemical. American Chemical Council President Cal Dooley says the bill has a number of strong points for the industry, like an employee-training provision to help protect sensitive information and portion that protects chemical companies from frivolous lawsuits. Still, ACC has chosen not to endorse the legislation. “Our members are concerned that providing government with authority to direct process changes or product substitutions could result in making critical products unavailable throughout our economy, with potentially significant impact on our companies and our customers,” he says. For the full version of this story, click here.—Jeremy Alford