Biden tightens chemical plant safety rules rolled back under Trump

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday is tightening safety rules for chemical plants loosened under the Trump administration.

The rules are designed to prevent chemical accidents, and EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said they are the “strongest safety requirements ever for industrial facilities.”

It restores measures rolled back by the Trump administration, including requiring companies to assess potentially safer technologies and processes that can limit hazards. It will also restore a requirement for “root cause” analyses after accidents.

These regulations were first implemented under the Obama administration after a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas killed 15 people.

The rule also enforces new safety measures: It requires high-accident sectors to write plans and implement safeguards, highlights companies’ responsibility to evaluate hazards related to natural disasters and makes more information about safety risks available to nearby communities.

When it loosened the rule in 2019, the Trump administration argued doing so reduced burdens on industry and addressed security risks from previous regulations.

The rules apply to 12,000 industrial facilities, including chemical manufacturers and distributors, oil refineries, food and beverage manufacturers and agricultural supply distributors.