Chemical plant safety: Another view
Philip Crowley of the Center for American Progress offers his views on chemical plant safety
The Center for American Progress senior fellow and director of national defense, Phillip Crowley testified today before the House Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity about how to comprehensively approach chemical security planning for the proposed Chemical Security Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (H.R.4999).
The need to incorporate safer security standards and practices is one of the Center’s points to be conveyed to the committee. Their extensive research in the field of chemical plant and transportation safety has led them to suggest security policies making America’s infrastructure, including chemical facilities, more secure. Risk elimination is one of their biggest suggested policies. This would require changes in routes for trains which carry toxic chemicals through residential neighborhoods and densely populated areas. It would also include securing more obvious targets for terrorists such as the many chemical plants along the Delaware River in New Jersey, the United States’ most densely populated state.
Crowley will highlight the results of the Center’s recent national chemical facility survey, which shows that risk assessments and security plans must take into account the manufacture, use, physical security, storage and transportation of dangerous substances. Crowley, a National Security Council staff member and current security analyst, emphasized the that changes in chemical security policies must occur at an accelerated pace to keep as many Americans and facilities safe from terrorist activity.
