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In 2024, the federal Environmental Protection Agency attempted to address the risk of chemical leaks through a rule called the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention. It promised a modest course correction, requiring dangerous plants to investigate past accidents, plan for climate-fueled disasters, give workers more power to halt unsafe operations, and, in some cases, switch to safer chemicals or processes. But last month, Trump’s EPA proposed gutting most of those safeguards before they ever took effect, moving to strip away requirements for safer technologies, climate and natural disaster planning, third-party safety audits, and strong worker participation in decision making. “For fenceline communities and facility workers, this rollback is a declaration that our lives are deemed acceptable sacrifices,” said Ana Parras, executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, a group that has worked in several national coalitions around chemical safety.

A new analysis and interactive map illustrates the real-world impacts of gutting regulations for the nation’s most hazardous chemical facilities, as recently proposed by the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Disaster Déjà Vu outlines six Texas facilities with recent histories of back-to-back chemical incidents – including fires, explosions, and worker injuries –  that are regulated by the EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP). New requirements for RMP facilities, intended to make communities safer from the threat of chemical disasters, were finalized under the Biden Administration and were slated to begin going into effect this year, until President Trump’s EPA proposed rollbacks.  These rollbacks are “a capitulation to industry demands, at the expense of public safety,” concludes the analysis, co-authored by Coming Clean, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (T.e.j.a.s.).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Community, health, and environmental groups sued the Trump administration today to stop an executive action that would unlawfully exempt 50 of the country’s most toxic chemical manufacturing plants from protections that guard people against dangerous cancer-causing air pollutants, including ethylene oxide and chloroprene. “We’ve fought for decades to close loopholes and get real checks on chemical leaks. These standards target the dangerous chemicals that create a huge cancer risk in communities like Mossville, Louisiana, and others throughout the country,” said Michele Roberts, national coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA). “Delaying them is a policy choice with a human cost, measured in diagnoses, not dollars. The Clean Air Act doesn’t allow a president to waive our human right to health or hand polluters a free pass without evidence.” 

Coming Clean is seeking part-time, short-term administrative support for the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA). The EJHA Administrative Associate will report to, and take direction from the EJHA National Organizer.