February 12, 2007

Volume 85, Number 7

p. 58

Government & Policy Concentrates

Chemical Security Plan Needs Clarity

The Department of Homeland Security's proposed plan to improve security at high-risk chemical facilities and reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks "is clearly a step in the right direction," but it lacks clarity in several key areas, the American Chemistry Council said in comments filed with the agency last week. ACC expressed concern that DHS has not explained how it intends to identify the high-risk facilities that will need to take additional actions, such as conducting vulnerability assessments and preparing site security plans. "Business certainty is crucial," ACC said. "We want to ensure that all high-risk facilities clearly know their status and obligations early on so that they can take the necessary steps to demonstrate compliance." The Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association also voiced reservations about the way risk screening and vulnerability assessments will be carried out. Activist groups have sharply criticized the DHS plan for not requiring plants to use inherently safer technologies when feasible, failing to explicitly protect more stringent state chemical security programs from federal preemption, and not covering enough facilities. DHS plans to issue a final rule in April.

GAO Investigation Rips Toxics Reporting Rule

A new EPA rule will provide modest savings to many companies, but the public will lose a substantial amount of information on local chemical releases, the Government Accountability Office reported on Feb. 6. Under the rule, about one-third of the 24,000 facilities that file Toxics Release Inventory reports are now eligible to submit less information about one or more chemicals. EPA finalized the rule in late December 2006 (C&EN, Jan. 1, page 10). The changes allow more facilities to use a short form rather than a long form for filing their annual TRI reports. GAO said these changes "will likely have a significant impact on information available to the public about dozens of toxic chemicals from thousands of facilities in states and communities across the country." The new rule will save industry $5.9 million per year, which GAO said works out to less than $900 per facility, or about 4% of the total annual cost of all TRI reporting. The GAO findings (GAO-07-464T), presented as testimony to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, are available at www.gao.gov/new.items/d07464t.pdf and will be part of a final report expected later this year.

Shippers Oppose New Rail Rate Rules

Chemical manufacturers and other freight railroad customers contend that changes proposed by federal regulators to the current process for challenging "excessive" rail rates would make an ineffective system even more burdensome. Thomas E. Schick, senior director of distribution for the American Chemistry Council, says the current process for challenging rates for small shipments "is far from ideal," but new rules proposed by the Surface Transportation Board "would make an untenable situation even worse for shippers seeking relief from monopolistic rail practices." The proposal, he asserts, "sets unrealistic eligibility standards while making an already difficult process even more time-consuming and costly." In 1995, Congress directed STB to develop "simplified guidelines" for contesting freight rates in cases involving small shipments. But shippers have long complained that the process subsequently put in place is too complex to provide any relief for rail customers. At a Jan. 31 hearing, shippers told STB officials that the proposed changes would create more barriers and further discourage new cases from being filed. Railroads, however, testified that the new rules would clarify the existing procedures for resolving rate disputes involving small shipments.

House Passes Bill on Meth Lab Cleanup

The House of Representatives on Feb. 7 passed a bill (H.R. 365) to help detect and clean up illicit laboratories that make the street drug methamphetamine. The legislation would authorize a research program at the National Institute of Standards & Technology for developing equipment that can detect methamphetamine in the field. It would require EPA to develop voluntary health-based cleanup guidelines for states and local governments to use when remediating the sites of former methamphetamine laboratories. Also, the legislation would direct the National Academy of Sciences to study the long-term health impacts of methamphetamine exposure on children rescued from illegal lab sites and on law enforcement and other emergency personnel responding to these sites. The bill is popular among lawmakers-it passed both the Senate and the House in the 109th Congress-and could wind up on the President's desk later this year.

DOE Plans Third Biofuels R&D Center

Funding for a third R&D center to conduct basic research to discover microbes and plant species that will increase the yield and the speed of production of ethanol and other biofuels made from cellulosic feedstocks is proposed in the Bush Administration's 2008 budget. Last summer, the Department of Energy announced funding of $25 million annually for five years for each of two centers. The third would also receive $25 million per year. Proposals are due this month, says Raymond L. Orbach, DOE undersecretary for science, who adds that the final selections will be made by summer but the centers will not be fully operational until next year. However, to minimize start-up time and costs, the centers are to be established in existing universities, government laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private companies. DOE is seeking "transformational technologies" that will more efficiently convert a range of plant fibers to ethanol and other fuels as well as to chemical feedstocks.

Chemical & Engineering News

ISSN 0009-2347

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