EPA Official Floats New Insurance Mandate To Limit Chemical Disaster Risks

摘要

An EPA Region IV emergency response official is suggesting that federal agencies developing plans to improve the safety and security of industrial plants craft regulations to require facility owners to model potential risks from their plants and then require them to purchase liability insurance - with premiums correlated to risks - that would cover damage from a catastrophic release. If the agencies - members of a federal working group charged with implementing President Obama's executive order on improving plant safety - adopt such an approach, the EPA official argues it could provide a commercial driver for plant owners to adopt inherently safer technologies (1ST), such as less toxic chemicals, that environmentalists have long been urging the administration to mandate.