This story was updated at 6 p.m. EST.
Following a protracted seesaw battle, EPA is again moving to strengthen regulations aimed at preventing accidents at refineries, chemical plants and thousands of other facilities that can lead to potentially lethal air pollution releases and cause millions of dollars in property damage.
Under a final update released Friday morning, those operations will now have to account for the risks posed by higher odds of flooding and other perils tied to climate change; some will also have to implement safer options to their existing procedures. In a notable stride toward greater openness, EPA is making plants’ “risk management plans” — previously accessible through in-person reading rooms or open records requests — partly available online to nearby residents.
The new safeguards go further in some respects than what EPA proposed 1½ years ago. They will “protect some of our most vulnerable populations that have been overburdened by industrial pollution for far too long,” Deputy EPA Administrator Janet McCabe told reporters on a Thursday conference call previewing the agency’s decision.
