Industry figures say enough lawmakers are signaling support for reauthorizing the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program that they expect “opportunities” for a renewal in the new year -- though still with some uncertainty over whether that support will be enough to push a bill across the finish line.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has published a pair of reports in the space of a week that call for OSHA to craft new safety standards, with one recommending the agency enact a nationwide safety rule for workers who deal with liquid nitrogen and another broadening its past calls for a rulemaking on combustible dust.
Two environmental groups are renewing their push for EPA to strengthen its upcoming Risk Management Program (RMP) update, citing data on chemical-facility accidents as recent as Oct. 15, as supporters of a strict policy continue to raise public concerns that the agency’s upcoming final rule will fall short of their goals in several key areas.
Environmentalists are pushing to toughen EPA’s final risk management program (RMP) rule in a series of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meetings while warning that the agency is working too closely with industry on the policy, including one source who says it has shown trade associations the regulation, but not citizen groups.
OSHA has sent a long-promised proposal to update its safety standards for emergency responders for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review -- a move that means the plan will likely miss its November target but could see release by the end of the year or in early 2024, more than 16 years after it was first announced.
The Department of Justice is touting new jury convictions and guilty pleas under both the OSH Act and Clean Air Act in its years-long prosecution of a Wisconsin milling company and several of the employer’s current and former officials over a 2017 explosion that killed five workers.
Groups representing sheriffs and other first responders are again urging lawmakers to reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, warning that allowing it to lapse has increased terrorism risks and limited collaboration between local emergency services.
EPA has sent its final rule overhauling the risk management program (RMP) to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review, setting the stage for what is expected to be a slew of changes to facility-safety requirements addressing emergency preparedness, regulatory definitions and extreme weather planning, among others.
A prominent industry attorney says OSHA is likely to include mandates for facilities to plan for extreme weather like hurricanes in any overhaul of the process safety management (PSM) standard, building on what is already a broad push by several other program offices and agencies to incorporate weather resiliency into regulatory programs.
A broad coalition of industry trade associations is again pressing the Senate to reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program by quickly passing a two-year bill that has already cleared the House, teeing up the issue again after lawmakers returned from their August recess.