So much madness, so little time.
The last safety “inspection of the West fertilizer plant happened in– 1985.” Because, you know, fertilizer components aren't flammable and dangerous and don't require any regulation whatsoever. Nor are ingredients such as ammonium nitrate ever used in, say, domestic terrorist attacks like, oh I dunno, the Oklahoma City bombing.
Nor do they ever explode.
Nor do they pollute the air with noxious fumes when they never explode.
Nor do those explosions that never happen ever kill people.
So, of course, no forward-looking country with clear-thinking leaders would ever consider exposing its citizens to even more noxious ammonia factories. Nor would they encourage any powerful corporations to engage in any undertakings that would rely on chemicals that could easily pollute and ignite the way the plant in West, Texas did.
The U.S. could soon be home to a lot more ammonia factories — not a comforting thought after a deadly explosion at an ammonia fertilizer plant in Texas on Wednesday evening. You can blame the fracking boom. [...]
Australian company Incitec Pivot this week announced [PDF] that it will be building a hulking new $850 million ammonia facility in Waggaman, La., just outside New Orleans. [...]
U.S.-based Mosaic announced in December that it may build a $700 million ammonia plant in St. James Parish, La. U.S.-based CHS Inc. said in September that it would construct a $1.2 billion ammonia plant in North Dakota. Also in September, Egypt’s largest company, Orascom Construction, said it would spend $1.4 billion to build a fertilizer plant in Iowa.
Well, erm, okay, but surely ammonia production has a good safety record overall, and the Texas disaster was just an anomaly. Right?
The history of ammonia production and storage is littered with spectacular accidents.
Oh, and there's this:
The Dallas Morning News reports that the Texas fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night told the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented "no risk of fire or explosion."
They lied to the EPA and were not in compliance with EPA regulations (EPA regulations do not allow felony violations of 18 USC 1001). If the company was in compliance with EPA regulations, then the 540,000 lbs of the explosive ammonium nitrate, stored at the facility, would not have blown up.
Now think about all those impending new ammonia facilities. What could possibly go wrong?
All our posts on the environmental rapes perpetrated by frackers can be found here (scroll).
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