Media

A new analysis and interactive map illustrates the real-world impacts of gutting regulations for the nation’s most hazardous chemical facilities, as recently proposed by the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Disaster Déjà Vu outlines six Texas facilities with recent histories of back-to-back chemical incidents – including fires, explosions, and worker injuries –  that are regulated by the EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP). New requirements for RMP facilities, intended to make communities safer from the threat of chemical disasters, were finalized under the Biden Administration and were slated to begin going into effect this year, until President Trump’s EPA proposed rollbacks.  These rollbacks are “a capitulation to industry demands, at the expense of public safety,” concludes the analysis, co-authored by Coming Clean, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (T.e.j.a.s.).

NATIONWIDE – In response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to remove the Endangerment Finding and revoke vehicle emissions regulations, a coalition of environmental justice networks submitted written comments – signed by 100 organizations and individuals – alongside a powerful collection of testimonies that capture the real-world impacts of climate and transportation pollution and frontline and fenceline communities’ need for robust protections. The coalition of environmental justice groups warn that EPA’s decision undermines their mission and puts millions of lives at risk, placing environmental justice communities in the greatest danger. They also share a clear set of demands: The EPA must stop its proposal to revoke the Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards, renew its commitment to environmental justice, restore essential funding, and commit to regulations that protect current and future generations.

The Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters published updates to its open-access chemical disaster tracking tool today that allow users to see how close they live to highly hazardous facilities covered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Management Program (RMP). The Chemical Incident Tracker continues to allow users to search for chemical releases, fires and explosions that have been reported in the media since January 2021, using an interactive map. The tracker is updated with new incidents weekly. 

Exposure to chemical plant pollution can shorten lives and contribute to many health problems. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  finally took action to reduce emissions of cancer-causing toxics like ethylene oxide and chloroprene from chemical plants, and developmentally-toxic mercury and heavy metals from coal plants. President Trump’s proclamations give over 150 facilities (52 chemical plants, 39 sterilizers and 68 of the country’s dirtiest coal plants) a free pass to ignore these pollution-reducing rules that would otherwise protect lives and health. 

A coalition led by environmental justice organizations filed a suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today for refusing to issue long-overdue rules to prevent hazardous-substance discharges that threaten public health and contaminate waterways. Across the United States, more than 100,000 facilities make, store, or use hundreds of hazardous chemicals linked to reproductive, developmental, and neurological harm – including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrochloric acid. “For generations environmental justice communities have lived next to some of the most hazardous facilities in the country that threaten the bodies of water our families rely on to survive. Now more than ever we must prioritize creating safe and healthy places where all of our children can thrive and grow.” said Michele Roberts, National Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. “The EPA’s do-nothing approach leaves us one incident away from a catastrophe.”