"I was in the private sector all my life... did I like it when the government came in and stepped in and told [us] to do certain things? The answer's no... I think we're trying to avoid that."
He didn't "like" government intrusion so "We're trying to avoid that"? One can only wonder why people such as this- those who abhor government stepping in and telling them "certain things"- didn't raise their voices against the Patriot Act, random searches, body searches at airports, and the scaling back of our Constitutional rights.
But the Administration has little interest in the Constitution or, for that matter, with safety. Its interests rest with business. The laissez-faire attitude expressed above was, and is, symptomatic of some of the ideologues in charge of our safety. However, ideology rarely ensures large campaign contributions which is why it's just a small part of the answer as to why the Administration hasn't taken the necessary steps to secure chemical facilities.
A closer look at the relationship between the chemical industry and the Administration and its allies shows just how much value is placed on industry dollars as opposed to safety. It might also point out that George Bush's statement regarding what he thinks about every morning should be changed to, "I wake up every morning, get a briefing from our top contributors, and begin thinking about how to better protect our country as long as whatever steps we take don't interfere with the profits of those contributors."
The chemical industry used its clout and contributions, dating back to 1998, wisely as it spread $22 million dollars to certain "players" in Congress and George Bush. That amount obviously spoke loudly. At least much more loudly than a typical American family, town or city ever could.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), a lobbying organization that works on behalf of the chemical industry, spent $4.3 million in 2002 (House election year) and 2003 on in-house lobbyists, ensuring that its message opposing strong, mandatory chemical security regulations was clearly heard on Capitol Hill as well as within the Administration.
Then- EPA administrator Christie Whitman, who resigned from her position in 2003, noted in a book she wrote that chemical industry lobbyists and some Republican lawmakers blocked her and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's efforts to obtain new and effective regulatory authority to secure chemical plants.
To understand why private self-regulation has no place in dealing with public safety, one must understand the implications of the industry's own Conference Board statement that, "The perceived need to upgrade corporate security has clashed with the perceived need to control expenses...".
The GAO looked into the voluntary security plans and concluded that, indeed, the industry was using a profit analysis when it came to safety evaluation and implementation.
Sal DePasquale, who helped draw up the ACC's voluntary security plan said, "Refusing to issue prescriptive standards essentially means the industry association is simply creating a smoke-and-mirrors exercise to make it appear that it is issuing bona fide standards. It is not."
A few of the results of industry self-regulation are a lack of requirements for background checks on guards, no efforts to minimize the dangerous chemicals stored on site, and no efforts to repair holes in fences at the facilities. To ensure that the industry is not held to account for its failures, each facility gets to choose the person who verifies that it has actually carried out a security plan.
It now appears that certain members of Congress have had enough. One example of a slight flexing of Congressional muscle was evidenced by a Senate hearing held on April 27, 2005 where testimony was given before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Richard Falkenrath, who resigned from his position as Homeland Security adviser to George Bush in May 2004, speaking on chemical facility safety told the Committee, "I am aware of no other category of potential terrorist targets that presents as great a danger as TIH industrial chemicals." He went on to say, "... there [has] been no significant reduction in the inherent vulnerability of the most dangerous... chemical facilities and conveyances to terrorist attack since September 11, 2001."
He, now free from the Administration, is urging Congress to require, among many other security related actions, the Homeland Security Department to maintain an inventory of chemical plants, to develop safety standards, to verify that plants have met those requirements and to impose civil and criminal penalties on those that don't.
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