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March 11, 2025Trump Administration’s Decision to Rehash Chemical Disaster Prevention Rules Will Endanger Millions of Workers and Fenceline Community Residents
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday that it plans to rehash regulations under the Risk Management Program (RMP). The decision comes after lobbyists for the chemical industry sent a letter requesting the agency weaken the rule requiring nearly 12,000 highly hazardous industrial facilities to prevent and plan for chemical disasters.
The EPA is bending to the will of corporate lobbyists who are seeking to eliminate stronger rules finalized in 2024. These more protective rules were the result of years of public debate and incorporated input from industry and the public alike, including advocacy by environmental justice, labor, occupational and public health, and environmental organizations. The RMP was enacted 35 years ago in the aftermath of the tragic Bhopal Disaster to protect workers, emergency responders, and families by requiring industrial facilities in the United States that handle certain toxic chemicals to have clear plans to prevent and prepare for chemical disasters. The Trump administration’s decision to once again rehash the 2024 rule sacrifices the health and safety of the almost 200 million people who live, work, or attend school at or near these facilities.
"The rule finalized in 2024 didn’t do everything that facility workers and neighboring communities need to be fully protected, but the commonsense improvements included would save lives and protect health and the environment if allowed to be implemented," said Stephanie Herron of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. "This EPA’s decision to yet again delay and presumably weaken this rule at the behest of chemical industry associations and the worst actor RMP facilities is indefensible and disrespectful to the time given by the thousands of community members, facility workers, advocates and organizations who have repeatedly weighed in with EPA on this program, most recently in the two-plus-year process that resulted in the 2024 rule."
The latest iteration of the regulation – the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention (SCCAP) rule – was finalized last year under the Biden administration, landing a decades-long compromise supported by members of the Coalition. If implemented, it would require some companies to identify safer technologies and processes and implement safeguards in certain circumstances, as well as plan for climate-related hazards such as flooding and wildfires. The SCCAP rule also called for enhanced emergency response measures, increased worker protections and involvement in risk management plans, and improved community access to information about safeguards for the chemicals used and stored at RMP facilities.
While the SCCAP rule could have gone further to protect workers and communities from chemical disasters, if implemented, Coalition members agree that it would have saved lives. According to the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters’ chemical incident tracker, there have been more than 1,100 incidents (275 of which were at RMP facilities) since early 2021, when the coalition began tracking chemical disasters. Already in 2025, there have been at least 34 chemical incidents, nine of which were at RMP facilities.
“The administration’s decision to roll back these safeguards shows yet again that its allegiance is to industry elites and that it is willing to ignore the basic needs of regular people in order to kowtow to corporate bosses,” said Judy Robinson, Executive Director at the Coming Clean network.
Although any efforts of the Trump administration to weaken the Risk Management Program will negatively impact all people, it will have an outsized effect on workers at these facilities and people from Black, Brown, and low-wealth communities, who, due to historic societal racism and other injustices, are more likely to live, work, and attend school near RMP facilities. Many RMP facilities emit any number of dangerous chemicals day in and day out, and these impacts are only exacerbated during a catastrophic disaster.
The corporate lobbyist letter also urged the EPA to immediately shut down and remove a Public Data Tool that provides critical access to non-confidential information about RMP facilities. The tool was released separately but alongside the SCCAP and provides basic information that neighboring communities have a right-to-know, including information about emergency preparedness, a facility’s disaster history, and chemical safety data.
“USW members, as the single largest group of stakeholders when it comes to RMP regulations, witness firsthand the very real life and death consequences of instituting and maintaining workplace protections against chemical disasters,” said Jim Savage, United Steelworkers Legislative Representative, who worked in the oil industry for 27 years. “Should the EPA fail to fully implement the basic, common-sense protections in SCCAP, it would not only put workers at risk of further fatalities and catastrophic injuries, but also leave our communities in danger.”
"When facilities using hazardous chemicals explode and burn, workers, firefighters, and plant neighbors get ill, injured, and sometimes die. But catastrophic incidents also cause plant shutdowns, permanent layoffs, and economic harm. For example, after the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery exploded in June 2019, the site closed and more than 1,000 good-paying jobs were lost. Strong safeguards are needed for safety – and to protect our industries and economy," said Debra Coyle, Executive Director at the New Jersey Work Environment Council, a coalition of 60 labor, community, and environmental organizations that had won pathbreaking state chemical safety policy reforms.
“The Risk Management Program is one of the strongest tools available to the U.S. government to protect people from the harms of dangerous chemical disasters,” said Darya Minovi, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The EPA’s decision to reconsider these common-sense protections is abhorrent. Those who work at or spend time near RMP facilities deserve strong government protections. Instead, the Trump administration is moving to weaken chemical safety requirements and cut public access to information about chemical hazards in their backyards. This decision is sure to cause irreparable harm to hard-working people.”
To learn more about efforts to protect and strengthen the Risk Management Program, please visit the coalition website.
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Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform are members of the the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, which includes community members, environmental health and justice organizations, health professionals, and labor groups, calling on the EPA and other federal agencies to enact stronger regulations for facilities that use, store, and manufacture hazardous chemicals. Together we are advocating to improve the safety of our homes, workplaces, hospitals and schools.