The Hill News

The latest in a series of hijackings of chemical security legislation since 2001 took place at the June 22 mark up of H.R. 901 in Representative Peter King’s (R-N.Y.) Homeland Security Committee. It sounds crazy but King’s bill would extend current law until 2018 even though it prohibits the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from requiring the use of safer more secure chemical processes to prevent chemical disasters in the event of an attack. 

According to EPA data, 300 chemical plants together put 110 million Americans at risk. A poison gas release at one of them can threaten communities 20 miles down wind. Security can’t prevent an attack. Former DuPont CEO Charles Holliday admitted, “If someone wants to fly an airplane into a plant, it's very hard to guard against it."

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