NPRA ’07: US site rules to uphold competitiveness

26 March 2007 22:03  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--Impending federal regulations for antiterrorism site security at high-risk chemical plants will be reasonable and clear and will seek to maintain US chemical industry competitiveness, a top federal security official said on Monday.

 

Alfonso Martinez-Fonts, assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, told a chemicals industry audience that the department’s new site security standards for chemical plants most at risk will recognise that not all facilities present the same level of risk.

 

The department may issue as early as this week a set of mandatory regulations to enforce the chemical plant site security law passed by Congress late last year.  The legislation is the first to give federal officials a mandate and authority for setting and ensuring security standards at high-risk chemical facilities.

 

Martinez-Fonts said, however, that the department is mindful of the potential impact of regulations on industry.

 

“We hope to achieve an economically competitive chemical industry security posture that will reduce vulnerabilities and consequences to an acceptable level,” he said.

 

The new site security rules are due by 4 April, but department officials have indicated that the regulations will be issued ahead of that congressional deadline, perhaps sometime this week.

 

Speaking to chemical industry executives at the 32nd annual National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) petrochemicals conference, Martinez-Fonts said the coming regulations “will be reasonable, clear and equitable in setting performance standards”. 

 

The regulations will set minimum security standards for high-risk chemical facilities, but plant owners and operators will be left to choose which security measures to take to meet the federal standards.

 

“At the end of the day, we will be looking for performance,” he said.

 

Martinez-Fonts declined to comment on new chemical site security legislation that is now pending in Congress.  The new, Democrat-sponsored legislation would in some key respects overturn industry-favoured provisions of the Republican-sponsored site security law passed late last year. 

 

Martinez-Fonts said he was not familiar enough with the new legislation to comment on its potential impact on the regulations his department is about to publish.

 

The NPRA conference runs through Tuesday.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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