-Caveat Lector-
>From www.publicampaign.org/ouch.html#chemical
> OUCH! #29 -- August 18, 1999
>
>
> Chemical Industry Keeps You in the Dark
>
> IGNORANCE IS BLISS
>
> In 1990, after the Bhopal chemical plant disaster in India,
> Congress moved to help prevent similar accidents at facilities
> using extremely hazardous substances. Thousands of facilities
> that use certain flammable and toxic chemicals were required,
> under the Clean Air Act, to submit risk management plans to the
> Environmental Protection Agency and state and local governments.
> The deadline: June 21, 1999.
>
> The core idea was that the public has a right to know about the
> chemical hazards in their communities, and that local emergency
> response personnel need advance information to prepare for and
> prevent possible chemical accidents. In addition, by allowing
> researchers to collect and compare information about accident
> risks at existing facilities, safety advocates could set
> priorities for hazard reduction and determine which companies
> were taking necessary precautions and which companies were
> needlessly endangering their neighbors.
>
> All that prudent legislation has gone out the window with the
> passage of the Chemical Safety Information, Site Security and
> Fuels Regulatory Relief Act (S. 880). Signed into law by
> President Clinton in early August, the new law blocks the EPA
> from posting on the Internet any information about a facility's
> "offsite-consequence analysis" (that's bureaucrateze for
> information describing how dangerous a facility currently
> is)--including worst-case scenarios involving toxic releases or
> explosions. Only "qualified researchers" may request access to
> that information, but they are explicitly prohibited from
> disseminating it in any form, under pain of criminal fines. The
> only thing companies have to do to demonstrate that they are
> taking any precautionary action is hold a meeting with local
> stakeholders sometime in the next six months, summarizing the
> issues around any worst-case scenario involving a local facility.
>
>
> So much for the public's right-to-know. This approach can be
> summarized as follows: if there is a danger of a chemical
> accident, the best solution is to keep the public in the dark as
> to how bad the risks are and what, if anything, is being done
> about it.
>
> This is a classic case of how moneyed interests, focused hard on
> a narrow concern, can easily defeat the broader interest when the
> public isn't paying attention. The chemical industry led the
> charge for S. 880, its influence rooted in $4 million in PAC
> donations, soft money and large individual ($200 and up)
> contributions to congressional candidates in 1997-98. Its allies
> in the food processing industry, oil and gas producers and
> refiners, and agricultural fertilizer sectors--all of which are
> also subject to the Clean Air Act--gave another $22.5 million.
> Three-quarters of that went to Republicans. The leading sponsors
> of S. 880 were Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), who raised $432,730
> from those industries between 1993 and 1998, and Rep. Tom Bliley
> (R-VA), recipient of $93,261. Against them were a host of
> consumer and environmental groups, none of them major campaign
> contributors.
>
> The chemical industry claims that S. 880 was needed to prevent
> dangerous information from falling into the hands of terrorists,
> giving them a road map of which plants to attack. Never mind that
> the EPA had specifically exempted any classified information from
> being released in facility risk management plans. And forget that
> from 1987 to 1996, there have been 600,000 accidents reported
> involving hazardous chemicals--and not one has been caused by
> terrorists. As it is, S. 880 contains no provisions to improve
> site security, reduce hazards through inherent safety, or harden
> facilities against attack.
>
> Two-hundred-fifty people, plant-workers as well as people living
> nearby, die each year from chemical accidents. The more the
> public knows about those risks, the more the pressure that proper
> precautions be taken. Which is apparently the last thing the
> chemical industry wants.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> OUCH! is a regular e-mail bulletin on how private money in
> politics hurts average citizens, published by Public Campaign, a
> non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to comprehensive
> campaign finance reform. Every day, we pay more as consumers and
> taxpayers for special interest subsidies and boondoggles because
> of our system of privately financed elections. It's time for a
> change.
>
> Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends
> and join the growing movement for real campaign finance reform.
> If you would like to add yourself to the OUCH! listserv, send a
> one-line e-mail message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] reading "subscribe
> ouch". To remove yourself from the list, send a message to the
> same address reading "unsubscribe ouch".
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ------- [back to OUCH!]
PubliCampaign.Org
www.publicampaign.org/index.html
> If you're looking for real solutions to clean up the campaign
> finance mess in this country, you've come to the right place. We
> can show you what's wrong with the system and how you can help
> fix it. That's right: YOU CAN HELP FIX IT. In fact, if America is
> ever going to change the money culture that defines politics
> today, WE THE PEOPLE are going to have to do it ourselves. We
> must put pressure on Congress and our state legislatures. Public
> pressure still sways politicians, in Washington and in state
> capitols. Real reform will only come from the ground up. Join
> Public Campaign and work for Clean Money Campaign Reform.
A<>E<>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said
it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your
own reason and your common sense." --Buddha
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
