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February 24, 2026“Disaster Déjà Vu” shows the cost of gutting protections from the nation’s most hazardous facilities
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.).
Six case studies exemplify the burdens that EPA’s proposed rollbacks would place on communities and workers if finalized:
- Pemex Refinery in Deer Park – which has had five incidents in the last five years, including a fire that killed two workers and injured 35 people – would no longer be subject to key requirements for RMP facilities which expand worker participation in disaster preparedness and grant stop-work-authority;
- Facilities like Olin Blue Cube in Freeport – which released 10,000 lbs of toxic chlorine gas last year, forcing children across a large school district to shelter in place – could be let off the hook for conducting an independent safety audit after reporting an accident;
- The Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City – which has had at least 8 chemical incidents since 2020 and uses highly hazardous hydrofluoric acid (HF) in its processes – would no longer be required to evaluate or implement safer chemicals and processes for its existing operations;
- All RMP facilities, including the ExxonMobil Refinery in Baytown – which is located in an area at risk of flooding and storm surges from category 4 or 5 hurricanes – would no longer be explicitly required to consider natural hazards in their Risk Management Plans; Exxon failed to report hurricanes or flooding as a potential hazard in its most recent RMP, showing a shocking lack of preparedness for extreme weather events.
Over 100 RMP facilities have experienced more than one chemical incident in the last five year period, shows the analysis, drawing from both EPA data and compiled media reports.
“No community should come to expect chemical disasters as a ‘fact of life.’ When the same facilities keep reporting fires, explosions and worker injuries year after year, it signals that we need stronger – not weaker – regulations.” said Maya Nye, Federal Policy Director for Coming Clean. “To claim that life-saving regulations are a ‘burden’ on hazardous facilities is an insult to the workers who have lost their lives, and the communities that have had to evacuate or tape up their windows time and again in the wake of recent chemical disasters.”
“This proposed rule is a direct assault on safety and a political gift to polluters,” said Ana Parras, Executive Director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (T.e.j.a.s) “For fenceline communities and facility workers, this rollback is a declaration that our lives are deemed acceptable sacrifices. By ripping away the requirement for safer technologies, the administration is actively increasing the threat of explosions and toxic releases - preventable disasters that will deepen environmental injustice for generations."
“EPA has the authority and moral obligation to do more, not less, to reduce risk and eliminate the harm from chemical disasters that endanger workers and poison neighboring residents. Instead of going back again and rewriting basic protections for workers and communities, EPA must implement the 2024 provisions and move on to strengthen other overdue or outdated rules required to protect human health and the environment, as is their mission,” said Michele Roberts, National Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform.
Available for Comment
Deidre Nelms; Communications Director; Coming Clean; (802) 251-0203 ext. 711, dnelms@comingcleaninc.org.