For Immediate Release
Wednesday
March 3, 2010
Contact Information:
Steve Higley 202-552-8455
NPRA Voices Support for Bill to Continue Chemical Security Program in Statement to Senate Committee
“S. 2996 is an important step to providing the industry with the regulatory certainty required to continue keeping our country safe from terrorist attacks. By reauthorizing the current Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) for five years, this legislation will grant DHS the time it needs to fully implement the current program, which will significantly strengthen our national security without undermining our economy.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, submitted written testimony today to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs as it convened a hearing titled “Chemical Security: Assessing Progress and Charting a Path Forward.” In its testimony, the Association stated its support for legislation to reauthorize the current Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, while reiterating its longstanding opposition to the inclusion of Inherently Safer Technology (IST) provisions in chemical facility security legislation.
“NPRA supports S. 2996, the ‘Continuing Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Security Act of 2010,’ the Association wrote. “S. 2996 is an important step to providing the industry with the regulatory certainty required to continue keeping our country safe from terrorist attacks. By reauthorizing the current Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) for five years, this legislation will grant DHS the time it needs to fully implement the current program, which will significantly strengthen our national security without undermining our economy. …
“NPRA firmly believes that the current CFATS program is a success. Since the creation of the CFATS program, there has been a surge in security awareness across all industries and among industry employees. As a result of CFATS, facility operators and employees have become keenly aware of vulnerabilities at each site, potential off-site consequences, and methods to reduce risks at these sites. …
“We urge the Committee to pass S. 2996 as currently drafted. We also urge the Committee to reject any attempts to amend S. 2996 with provisions that would undermine both security and economic development. IST decisions should be left to individual sites and not mandated by DHS. Chemical engineering decisions must be made by qualified chemical engineers, not by government officials lacking the requisite scientific background. Political considerations must not outweigh fundamental security principles.”
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NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all American refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as “building blocks” in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.