American Chemistry Council sets priorities and revamps communication via social media

An interactive approach

03 June 2009 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Facing "an unprecedented confluence of challenges," the ACC jumps into the debate. CEO Cal Dooley speaks to us ahead of the annual meeting

WITH A severe global economic recession, a renewed consumer and government focus on climate change and environmental issues, as well as heightened regulatory activity by US federal, state and local governments, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) is in for the fight of its life.

"What we're seeing is an unprecedented confluence of challenges facing the industry. We're experiencing one of the most severe economic recessions in history. At the same time, we are facing significant and intense public policy challenges on multiple fronts," Cal Dooley, ACC president and CEO, told ICIS Chemical Business.

With so much going on, the ACC is prioritizing its focus issues. Two at the top of the list: climate change and the modernization of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The ACC is positioning the industry as a critical component of the solution to the global climate change issue.

"Our industry is unique in that we are a solution provider that can empower consumers as well as other manufacturing sectors to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions with our products," said Dooley. The chemical industry develops and makes products that enhance energy efficiency - insulation, lightweight vehicle parts, and compact fluorescent light bulbs, for example; and products that make clean energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines. And for the industry to be a productive part of the solution, its global competitiveness must be safeguarded, according to the ACC.

"Climate change policy must be structured in a way that maintains our competitiveness internationally," said Dooley.

CAP-AND-TRADE WITH CONDITIONS
Therefore, a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions or a carbon tax - something the ACC is taking a neutral stance on - must take the industry's role into account, he says.

"We need emission credits that are outside of the auction in order to level the playing field internationally, and help us through this transition, says Dooley. "This has to be coupled with a comprehensive energy policy that makes sure we have a domestic supply of natural gas and oil feedstock to compete."

While the ACC is not opposed to cap and trade, it is very concerned about some provisions in the Waxman-Markey climate change bill as passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21.

The bill, sponsored by Representatives Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) and Ed Markey (Democrat, Massachusetts) calls for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

Specifically, the emissions allocation provision for trade-vulnerable industries treats energy-intensive industries differently from every other sector, Dooley points out. The bill assigns a baseline year of 2005 for energy-intensives versus a flexible, multiyear base period for other sectors. The bill also employs a different emission allowance schedule for energy-intensive industries compared with other sectors, he adds.

"We're constructively engaged in trying to get it modified so that we in fact could be a supporter of it," says Dooley.

However, Congress is unlikely to pass broad climate change legislation in 2009 due to a lack of consensus, according to the ACC.

"There is not a clear consensus on climate change in Congress and it will be difficult for them to secure passage this year," says Dooley. "With Congress also focusing a great deal of attention on health reform, it is debatable whether or not TSCA reform will be considered this year as well."

THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY ON TSCA
The TSCA is the nation's principal chemical control law, enacted in 1976. Congress is poised to begin a comprehensive review and revision of the act, and this is high on the list of the ACC's priorities.

"We must develop our solutions and reach out to other stakeholders in the consumer and environmental communities to see if we can drive alignment - whether it's on climate change or a solution for how we modernize chemical management," said Dooley. "This way, we can hopefully accelerate Congress's consideration of the modernization of TSCA."

Advances in the ability to detect chemicals in minute amounts, as well as the ability to assess the safety of those chemicals, demands a modernized system that is built on sound science, notes the ACC.

"We need a system that will identify chemicals that are of the greatest concern in terms of posing a safety or health risk, identify the information that our companies need to provide, and allow [the] EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to effectively assess the safety of these chemicals for their intended use," said Dooley.

CRISIS OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
The ACC would like the federal government, through the EPA, to have the ultimate authority to identify "chemicals of greatest concern" and determine their safety, rather than individual states coming up with their own regulations.

"We're seeing increasing product bans manifesting themselves in state legislation and even local laws. We also see retailers banning products," notes Dooley. "This is all a direct result of the lack of public confidence in the effectiveness and the efficacy of our chemical management system."

In May, Minnesota became the first state to ban bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and children's products. And Chicago, Illinois, is set to become the first US city to ban BPA on January 1, 2010. The state of Connecticut is also considering a BPA ban.

But with the EPA taking a more direct role in chemical management, there could be greater public and consumer confidence, according to the ACC.

"EPA doesn't have the level of expressed authority that we're willing to grant them," said Dooley.

"Right now, they can demand more information from the manufacturer to demonstrate safety. But we want to grant them authority to actually make that safety assessment."

The new TSCA approach would also be more targeted compared with the EU's Reach system, which takes "a shotgun approach to demanding that regulatory authorities and companies treat every chemical the same in terms of data provided," Dooley says.

The ACC is also in favor of Congress extending the current Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) without giving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to impose a mandate for using inherently safer technology (IST) at plants.

"Our industry has the expertise - we're the ones with the chemical and mechanical engineers and the ability to make a comprehensive decision on how we provide for security," says Dooley. "There is a role for DHS, but it's not a prescriptive one to mandate IST."

Lastly, President Obama's budget contains about $27bn (€19bn) in additional taxes for the chemical industry over the next 10 years in the form of reimposing the Superfund tax, repealing last in, first out inventory accounting for taxes, and repealing deductions for settlements, according to the ACC.

"The implications are significant when you consider that the cost is equivalent to 38% of the chemical industry's projected profits over this period," says Dooley. "This is a road map to the further erosion of the employment base of one of the highest-paying industries in the country."

ACC HITS CYBERSPACE
Twitter, Facebook, blogging - not what you'd expect from the often stodgy chemical industry. But times are changing.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) will increasingly engage in social media for communication, says Randy Dearth, chairman of the communications committee at the ACC and president and CEO of LANXESS Corp.

"There will be a huge change over the next year on the part of the ACC and chemical firms in the way we engage in debates and communicate our message," says Dearth, head of the North American arm of German specialty chemical firm LANXESS.

The ACC established a Facebook page under "American Chemistry" with its first post on September 30, 2008. It also has a Twitter page. In early May, the ACC hosted a "blog summit" on plastics recycling entitled "Too Valuable to Waste."

"Over the past few years, we were naive about how our opponents and NGOs [non-governmental organizations]were getting their message out. They were blogging, setting up web sites and dealing with social media in ways where we had no clue," he notes.

Concerns about the presence of bisphenol A (BPA) in polycarbonate (PC) had been "bubbling in the blogosphere for years," largely unbeknownst to the industry, before coming to the surface in 2008 in the form of bans in certain applications, says Dearth.

"Between 15–20% of the US polycarbonate market disappeared overnight - PC for food consumption and children's products. "We looked at ourselves and said: 'How could this happen?'" he recalls. "It wasn't based on sound science and we didn't get a chance to debate the issue. It was a done deal."

The ACC and its member companies will "proactively be part of the debate" when it comes to consumer awareness and activism, he said.

"We're going to be de-emphasizing the essential₂ ads you see on television and billboards and will focus more on advocacy and social media. You're not going to see our message on CNN or CNBC, but Facebook and Twitter, for instance," Dearth says.

"If we can engage those people who essentially don't like what we do and bring in sound science to the debate, and work with them and understand where they're coming from, we can then move forward for the good of society and industry," he adds.

On May 21, the ACC hired US-based W2SKD, a newly formed partnership between Racepoint Group (a digital firm), W2 Communications (a public affairs firm), and Squier Knapp Dunn (a public affairs, advertising and political consulting firm), to utilize social media more effectively.

"There are 75m people on Facebook - more than the population of Brazil. This is a huge tool for those that are able to harness the power of it," says Dearth. "We've had a tendency in the past to control conversations. Now we need to engage in the debate."

The ACC had been spending around $20m/year (€15m/year) on its essential₂ ad campaign, but the national television ads will end in June 2009, says Dearth.

As of late May, the ACC has evolved the former essential₂ campaign into an "advocacy communications" campaign focused on in-state and beltway communications, digital initiatives and public affairs targeted at lawmakers and policy makers to more directly support goals on ACC priority issues.

The campaign will also no longer be called essential₂, according to the ACC.

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Author: Joseph Chang
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