Washington, DC  – Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) made the following opening statement this morning at the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing titled “Secrecy in the Response to Bayer’s Fatal Chemical Plant Explosion”:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.  The August 28, 2008, explosion at Bayer CropScience’s chemical facility in Institute, West Virginia, provides another striking example of how supposed threats to the nation’s so-called “homeland security” can be invoked to justify preventing the release of crucial information to the public.  To be sure, the federal government has the obligation to protect the American people from all threats, domestic and foreign, but it would seem in this case that the rather excessive concern with secrecy reflected in the policies of and laws enacted by the previous Administration has thwarted attempts to respond to and investigate what could very well have been the United States’ own Bhopal disaster.

“As Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in 1990, I was an author of the Clean Air Act, which established the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB).  CSB’s statutory mandate is to prevent threats to public health and safety by fully examining chemical-related incidents and making public recommendations for preventing them in the future.  As we have learned, Bayer invoked the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002 to have information concerning the chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) classified as “sensitive security information” (SSI), thereby retaining the right to withhold that information and stymie CSB’s investigation of the explosion at the company’s facility in West Virginia.  In so doing, Bayer was able to derail CSB’s important work and delay potential improvements in chemical safety that would undoubtedly better protect the public.

“I am not satisfied that the manner in which information is classified as SSI under MTSA is beneficial to the public.  Moreover, I suspect that Bayer’s application to have information about MIC at its West Virginia facility designated as SSI was motivated not by an abiding concern for the public health, but instead was a stonewalling tactic meant to deter an investigation of the company’s potentially negligent safety practices.  One could very reasonably conclude that corporations seeking to escape public scrutiny can exploit MTSA and thus subvert the law’s intent of mitigating threats to public safety.  In this light, I invite the Subcommittee to consider the effects of MTSA on safety investigations by other federal entities, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). 

“I hope that the Subcommittee’s investigation of this matter will yield legislation balancing the need to protect national security with the government’s sworn duty to safeguard public health and safety.  I stand ready to assist you in this endeavor, Mr. Chairman, and yield back the balance of my time.”