We can’t let West, Texas happen again. It’s time for the President to take action. Send a message to President Obama right now and urge the administration to adopt better safety standards for chemical plants!

Rick  Hind, Greenpeace

A small town in Texas will never be the same after fifteen people lost  their lives when a fertilizer plant exploded back in April.

The explosion was so big it registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake and destroyed a 37-block area of West, Texas. The most tragic part of it all is that the explosion along with the death and destruction that followed didn’t have to happen.

There are safe, affordable alternatives to the dangerous chemicals like the  ones used in the Texas fertilizer plant available right now. But instead of making the switch, the chemical industry has chosen to spend its money lobbying Congress so that it can keep putting millions needlessly at risk. And up until now, that strategy was working.

Things are changing though. President Obama recently issued a directive to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop plans for new safety  measure at chemical plants by November. What happens next is up to us.  It’s your voice versus the chemical industry.

Send a message to President Obama and the EPA right now and urge them to  adopt safety standards that prevent chemical disasters.

You’re likely close enough to a facility that stores or uses deadly chemicals, like chlorine gas, to be at risk if something unexpected were to  happen. Most people in the U.S. are.

Chemical safety isn’t just an environmental issue — it impacts communities everywhere. That’s why we’ve been working closely with a diverse coalition of groups  including labor and environmental justice groups to send a clear message to the administration: the time to act is now.

President Obama has been outspoken on this issue in the past. In fact, back when  he was a Senator from Illinois he had this to say,: “We cannot allow  chemical industry lobbyists to dictate the terms of this debate. We  cannot allow our security to be hijacked by corporate interests.”

Take action and tell President Obama and the EPA that now’s the time to put  those words into action and prevent another disaster like the one in  West, Texas.

A decade ago the EPA proposed using the Clean Air Act to enforce commons  sense rules for chemical plants like the one in West, Texas. For a  decade Congress and two Presidents have been dragging their feet.

Legislation that would address this problem has completely stalled in Congress and  is going nowhere thanks to the deep pockets of the chemical lobby. It’s  up to the President to do the right thing and he needs our support to  make it happen.

If the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the nuclear disaster in  Fukushima and the West, Texas explosion have taught us anything in the  last couple of years, it’s that disasters happen. There’s no sense for  millions of Americans to remain needlessly at risk from dangerous  chemicals when safer alternatives exist.

Tell President Obama you support him using his authority to do what Congress won’t, and put the safety and health of American citizens ahead of  corporate interests.

Sincerely,

Rick Hind Greenpeace Legislative Director