President Obama’s Executive Order on Chemical Facility Safety Is a Step in the Right Direction

Yesterday President Obama signed an executive order, entitled "Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security," that is designed to get state, federal and local chemical safety agencies and first responders to improve coordination, information gathering, and regulation with respect to the risks posed by the many highly reactive chemical compounds that are stored and used throughout the United States. Inspired by the tragic explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas on April 17 of this year, the Executive Order establishes a federal working group chaired by Secretaries of Labor and Homeland Security and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and orders the working group to develop a plan to "support and further enable efforts by State regulators, State, local, and tribal emergency responders, chemical facility owners and operators, and local and tribal communities to work together to improve chemical facility safety and security." Coordination and Data Sharing. The Executive Order also addresses the easier question of coordination and data sharing among agencies with responsibility for protecting the public from chemical explosions. Among other things the working group is supposed to: • Identify ways to improve coordination among the Federal Government, first responders, and State, local, and tribal entities • Identify ways to ensure that the various state, local and federal entities with responsibilities for regulating reactive chemicals and reacting to explosions, either accidental or intentional (for example, acts of terrorism) of reactive chemicals "have ready access to key information in a useable format" • Identify areas where joint collaborative programs can be developed or enhanced • Identify opportunities and mechanisms to improve response procedures and to enhance information sharing and collaborative planning between chemical facility owners and operators and the relevant governmental agencies; and • Examine opportunities to improve public access to information about chemical facility risks consistent with national security needs and appropriate protection of confidential business information