More surprises today, apparently our chemical plants are at risk from terrorists. Who would have ever suspected? Besides everyone not being paid off by the chemical manufacturers that is.
Chemical plants at risk, US agency says :
WASHINGTON -- About 7,000 facilities, roughly half of the nation's chemical plants, are at high risk of catastrophe from either an accident or terrorist attack, the government said yesterday.Homeland Security Department officials released rules that will require performance standards from those high-risk plants, focusing first on the 300 to 400 facilities considered to be of the highest concern.
About 70 regulators from the Homeland Security Department will begin this summer carrying out audits and site inspections, Assistant Secretary Robert Stephan said.
....The rules allow the department for the first time to force recalcitrant plant operators to fall in line, either by issuing civil fines of up to $25,000 per day or in the most extreme cases shutting a plant down.
Oh, aren't we glad the adults are in charge? I mean 9/11/2001 was just a comma ago. Why rush to implement minor security measures like inspecting plants when there are corporate profits to protect?
Asked whether the federal rules would prevent New Jersey or other states from enacting stronger laws than exist today, Chertoff waved off the question as hypothetical.
“It's going to get resolved the way it always is -- someone's going to go to court,” he said.
That's a nice attitude to have for a top official.
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