Industry Wants Security Law Extended

A chemical industry leader is advising Congress against passing sweeping new plant-site security requirements and is instead urging support of newly proposed legislation that would extend the existing chemical security standards to 2012. "We have comprehensive site security rules in place today," says Joseph G. Acker, president of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA). "Congress needs to act responsibly and reauthorize existing standards." SOCMA is backing a bill (H.R. 2477) introduced last month by Rep. Charles W. Dent (R-Pa.) that would extend for three years the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards, the law currently in place. But the House Homeland Security Committee has drafted legislation that would substantially change the current law, which is set to expire at the end of September. The draft measure includes a provision that could require manufacturers to adopt government-selected "inherently safer technologies" to reduce the potential consequences of a terrorist attack on a facility.