EPA seeks to delay chemical safety rule for second time

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting to delay implementation of a safety rule for chemical plants for the second time this month. 

Administrator Scott Pruitt this week signed an order seeking a delay in the safety standards until at least 2019. Earlier this month, he ordered a pause in the implementation of the rule until at least this summer. 

The agency said the delay will allow it to review the legality of the rule and also consider objections raised against it by industry groups.

“We want to prevent regulation created for the sake of regulation by the previous administration,” Pruitt said in a statement. 

{mosads}Any new rule “should make chemical facilities safer, without compromising our national security. And, any new … requirements should be developed in accordance with the explicit mandate granted to EPA by Congress.”

The Obama administration introduced the new rule in December, expanding emergency coordination requirements for chemical manufacturers under the EPA’s Risk Management Plan program for those facilities. 

The rule came in part due to a 2013 explosion at a chemical plant in West Texas that killed 15. It would require companies to prepare for potential accidents by better communicating with communities and first responders, and expanding investigative and auditing powers for regulators. 

Chemical companies, though, objected to the rule. After Pruitt’s confirmation to be be head of the EPA, industry groups wrote him a letter saying the regulation does little to help public safety and instead “raises significant security concerns and compliance issues that will cause irreparable harm to the coalition members.”

Two weeks later, Pruitt paused implementation of the rule until this summer. The EPA announced on Friday that he kicked off a rulemaking process that could delay the regulation for up to two years.