Chemical plant bill advances in House (Melancon Votes Yes, Scalise No)
by Bruce Alpert - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

WASHINGTON -- A key House committee voted mostly along party lines Wednesday to approve a bill supporters say would better protect communities from terrorist attacks on chemical facilities. Opponents said the bill would impose unwieldy bureaucracy and cost jobs. pproved 29-18 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with most Democrats voting yes and Republicans no, the bill now goes to the full House of Representatives. Leaders of the chemical industry, which is well-represented in Louisiana with 61 companies operating at 96 sites, said manufacturers already are moving to upgrade security at the plants and that it would be a mistake to grant the federal government authority to order substitutions of chemicals or processes when the consequences could lead to ineffective products or hamper production. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, who represents communities with chemical plants, said he decided to vote for the bill after leaders of the committee agreed to changes, including a focus on the plants with the highest risks and a strong appeals process for companies that disagree with government directives. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, joined most Republicans in voting against the legislation. "Even (members of) the Department of Homeland Security, the agency charged with overseeing these new federal mandates, testified that they do not have the expertise to determine what would be safer for those facilities," Scalise said. "These types of radical environmental policies cost American families thousands of jobs and could leave our chemical plants more vulnerable to attack."

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CHEMICAL PLANTS BRISTLING AT BILL
By Jeremy Alford

(GO TO DAILY-REPORT.COM)

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced legislation Wednesday that could potentially allow the federal government to go into privately owned chemical plants and mandate certain processing changes and even make product substitutions—all in the name of fighting terrorism. To say the bill has caught the attention of a number of interests in Louisiana would be an understatement, as there are nearly 100 chemical plants in the state employing somewhere in the neighborhood of 24,000 workers, according to the Louisiana Chemical Association.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon of Napoleonville, who serves on the committee, voted in favor of the legislation along with other Democrats