US farm state senators block new security rules

29 August 2007 20:03  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--A coalition of US farm state senators wants to delay new chemical site security regulations until agricultural and small business uses of propane are exempted, according to documents circulated on Wednesday.

 

A group of 17 US senators has demanded that the White House hold up enforcement of new antiterrorism security rules designed to set protection standards at “high risk” US chemical facilities. 

 

In a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the senators argue that the antiterrorism regulations would have an “overly burdensome and disproportionate” impact on family farms and other small businesses that typically have on-site propane tanks.

 

The chemical plant site security regulations under the Department of Homeland Security went into force on 1 June, but implementation of the new rules awaits publication of the department’s final list of some 300 “chemicals of interest”.

 

Under the new antiterrorism regulations, any US site that produces or stores certain threshold quantities of any of the 300 chemicals would be subject to reporting requirements and perhaps mandated site security improvements.

 

The department’s revised list is now at the OMB, which must give final approval to all federal regulations.

 

Senator Charles Grassley (Republican-Iowa) and 16 other senators have asked OMB to withhold approval of the department’s list because it would trigger reporting obligations by any entity that holds 7,500 pounds of propane on site.

 

Grassley and his farm state colleagues argue that “propane tanks are used by virtually all rural homes, farms and rural small businesses across the country in areas not commonly supplied by natural gas”.  Even those modest quantities of propane, used as heating and cooking fuel, could require costly and burdensome reporting and compliance obligations for farmers and others, the senators said.

 

In a letter to the White House, the senators argue that many farms and small businesses typically will have two or more 1,000 gallon propane tanks, which would put those rural sites well above the 7,500-pound reporting and compliance threshold.  A gallon of propane weighs 4.2 pounds.

 

Grassley warned that if OMB and the Department of Homeland Security do not act to revise the propane threshold, “I will push forward with new legislation to ensure that rural Americans are not burdened by overbroad regulations on propane”.

 

US chemical industry officials, who generally support and welcome the pending site security regulations, said they worry that Grassley’s campaign might trigger objections to the department’s list from other sectors and further delay implementation of the rules.

By: Joe Kamalick
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