Texas Governor Rick Perry, loudly proud secessionist and flagrant free marketeer who has resisted federal spending in his state and who has criticized federal spending in any other, changed his tune this past Wednesday after an explosion at a Texas Fertilizer Plant leveled most of the small town surrounding it: Daily Kos: Texas fertilizer plant was storing highly explosive ammonium nitrate As did Tea Party champion Texas Senator Ted Cruz who, after Hurricane Sandy, referred to federal relief for the hurricane as “pork.” Every Texas representative in Congress voted against Sandy relief.
Perry called the industrial explosion at West Fertilizer Company a “nightmare scenario” as he implored the federal government to declare the blast a federal disaster. Perry, to some extent, is correct. The explosion was, in part, a federal disaster. Both state and federal regulators failed spectacularly at keeping the reckless private sector chemical plant within safe parameters and within the bounds of the law: Texas fertilizer company didn’t heed disclosure rules before blast | Reuters Although the company stored hazardous fertilizers like anhydrous ammonia and anhydrous nitrate, the plant hadn’t been properly inspected since 1985. Plant owners willfully and routinely evaded regulatory inspection. Despite its dealings in ammonium nitrate, a common substance in terrorist bombings like the 1993 World Trade Center Attack and the 1995 Oklahoma City attack, the Department of Homeland Security was unaware of the company’s storage of these materials. Facilities like West Fertilizer are required to report volatile substances to DHS which monitors security risk at specified chemical facilities, those deemed vulnerable to sabotage or as high-risk targets for criminals and terrorists.
But DHS didn’t know that West Fertilizer Company had been storing the chemical fertilizers at all. DHS wasn’t aware the company stored the chemicals in amounts 1,350 times above the regulatory threshold. The amount is startling enough, but combined with its precautionary failures, this private sector criminal enterprise stuns the mind: The risk management plan West Fertilizer Company filed with the EPA acknowledged that the facility lacked every safety mechanism required for a building that houses even mildly combustible materials: safety features like sprinklers, fire walls, blast walls and water-deluge systems.
Following this disaster, one would hope that DHS might spearhead an effort to re-organize the nation’s regulatory environment on a model not unlike its own structure, a model which has proven extremely successful in coordinating disaster response and prevention. As Reuters reports: “Apart from the DHS, the West Fertilizer site was subject to a hodgepodge of regulation by the EPA, OSHA, the US Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Office of the Texas State Chemist” amongst others.
The Texas explosion sadly exemplifies that what this nation needs is a Fusion Center equivalent for all regulatory agencies, one that could perhaps serve as an international model. Our very own Senator Ron Johnson happens to serve on the U.S. Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Now might be a good time to contact him to discover how he plans to address the nation’s regulatory environment following the West Fertilizer Disaster. How might he suggest increasing the government’s expectations of the private sector? Or the culpability of state regulatory authorities? Texas regulators unconscionably failed in their duties. Should states like Texas receive federal disaster relief for private sector disasters? Should federal disaster relief be contingent upon the vigilance, negligence, or compliance of state regulatory bodies to established federal safety standards? What, if any, solutions might the private sector specialist offer to prevent future private sector nightmare scenarios like the one that occurred at West Fertilizer Company? Senator Tammy Baldwin serves on the same Homeland Security Committee. Perhaps now might be a good time to contact her and pose the same questions.
75 miles south of Dallas and 120 miles north of Austin there’s a crater in the earth where West Fertilizer Company once stood. The explosion that caused it literally shook the heavens and earth, registering 2.1 on the Richter Scale, the more forceful shockwave thrusting people into the air several blocks away, radiating damage over an area of five square blocks, the shock felt 50 miles away, and emitting a mushroom cloud visible for miles. An estimated 24 dead. 11 first responders dead. But those numbers are preliminary; the death toll may exceed 70 with approximately 200 injured.
Governor Rick Perry asked President Obama to declare a state of emergency in the blast area that was once West, Texas. The President did so on Friday after conveying his thoughts, prayers, and sympathies. My sympathies, too, are with West, Texas. Yet, I can’t help but note that interviews with residents desiring to return to their homes indicated a curious suspicion of federal involvement in the investigation, clean-up, and relief. Some communicated a discomfort with FEMA. My hope is that Texans will find true relief in the disaster relief they receive from the federal government. I hope, as well, that their elected officials – the Perrys and the Cruzes will find the courage and wisdom to recognize that the “feds” are not the enemy, that Union and cooperation are preferable to secession and discord. Coverage of Monday’s attack at the Boston Marathon overshadowed much of the coverage of the West, Texas explosion. Let that not be a measure of its severity. Two American cities suffered unfathomable tragedy this week: one in the Northeast and one in the Southwest.
One would think that after the BP Oil Refinery Explosion in Texas City just after the BP Gulf Oil Rig explosion, Texas would have moved to upgrade their government regulation of manufacturing plants. But no, the Texas economy has depended on illegal Mexican labor for so long that government officials down there do not get in the way of “free enterprise.” It is no accident that Bush relatives presided over two states with the most illegal immigrant violations. The push to crush government regulation and use tax support to aid corporations at the expense of the public illustrates that corporate abuse will not be altered as long as there is an additional nickel to be gained. #movetoamend.org
What is wrong with the Texas residents t that theymfeel the fed. Govt is somehow responsible for private sector messes that happen in their state–ie: west, tx a few days ago-they deserve what they get– people who live there need to undestand they are bei ng duped by the company’s that work there an d cause these explosions– —one wonders if they have brains or intellect left in their heads after smelling all those fumesfrom oil, fertilizer etc
mjh,
That the South has developed in the way that it has post-Civil War then post-Civil Rights is a curious phenomenon to be sure. With the exception of Austin and perhaps a few other pockets of shifting demography, Texas exemplifies the Neo-Confederate ideal that might just tear this country asunder once again. You are quite right when you indicate that Texas residents are duped. The big business agenda has capitalized on the weaknesses inherent in the “state’s rights” agenda to the detriment of individuals and states. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the South. There are progressive movements in the Southern red states, but I should think it will take another 100 years before they overtake regressive conservatism and Anti-Constitutional regionalism. But who knows? Climate disaster and more deregulatory disasters might give progressivism a sudden surge. Providing, of course, Progressives remain progressive. The scary thing about the fusion of unfettered capitalism with the Neo-Confederate ideal is in how the two merge into an “American identity” (both subversions of founding ideals) which impact the polity in all other states. The West Fertilizer Company, ultimately isn’t just a Texas disaster. It’s an American disaster.