nic34
07-09-2014, 04:15 PM
Transcript: Abbott's Remarks on Hazardous Chemicals
Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate, has come under fire this week for suggesting that citizens get information about the storage of hazardous chemicals in Texas not from state officials but from the businesses that house them. His office ruled in May that government entities can withhold the locations of dangerous chemicals listed in state records — so-called Tier II reports — to protect the public from terrorism or other threats.
Q. General, on the Tier II question … what information is available? What can we see, and how do we do that?
A. You, as a reporter, you, as a community member of the state, can go to any chemical facility in the entire state of Texas and say, "Identify for me all chemicals you have on your facility," and you are entitled to get that information within 10 days.
Q. Do you have to know where the facility is?
A. Well, it’s helpful. I mean, you wouldn’t just want to say, "Well, I wonder if there’s one up in Andrews, Texas." You know where they are, if you drive around. Let’s bear this down. If you’re living in West, Texas, you know that there is some facility there and you have the right to ask the people in West, Texas, "Hey, what chemicals do you have in there?" Same thing as you drive from here back to your office, you may see any kind of plant or facility, you don’t have to know whether or not they do or do not have anything in there whatsoever, you can ask every facility whether or not they have chemicals, you can ask them if they do, and they can tell you, "Well, we do have chemicals" or "we don’t have chemicals," and if they do, they tell which ones they have.
Q. So we ask the facility, not (the Department of State Health Services)?
A. Right. That’s the way that law works to protect homeland security. DSHS has the right to not disclose this information for homeland security purposes. However, to ensure that those living in neighborhoods, those who live in areas where they want to make sure that things are safe, or those who are thinking about buying a home, when you buy a home you don’t just target on the internet and move in the next day, you drive around the neighborhood. You’re going to know everything that exists in the neighborhood in which you move, and you have the right to inquire before you move in there, every single facility along the way, whether or not they’re storing any kind of chemical whatsoever.
Q. You can just walk on their private property and say, "I have a right to be on your private property and ask you what you have?"
A. Absolutely.
… seconds later
Just to make clear, I mean, you may not be able to walk on private property, but you can send an email or letter or notice to anyone who owns any kind of private property or facility saying that under the Community Right to Know law, you need to tell me within 10 days what chemicals you have, so it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are you are, you’re obligated under that law to respond.
Oh, well, that's different....
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/03/abbott-pivots-access-information-about-chemicals/
So screw regulations, just drive around and be your own fire inspector..... Badges? We don need no steenkin badges!
Wow, just wow.
Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate, has come under fire this week for suggesting that citizens get information about the storage of hazardous chemicals in Texas not from state officials but from the businesses that house them. His office ruled in May that government entities can withhold the locations of dangerous chemicals listed in state records — so-called Tier II reports — to protect the public from terrorism or other threats.
Q. General, on the Tier II question … what information is available? What can we see, and how do we do that?
A. You, as a reporter, you, as a community member of the state, can go to any chemical facility in the entire state of Texas and say, "Identify for me all chemicals you have on your facility," and you are entitled to get that information within 10 days.
Q. Do you have to know where the facility is?
A. Well, it’s helpful. I mean, you wouldn’t just want to say, "Well, I wonder if there’s one up in Andrews, Texas." You know where they are, if you drive around. Let’s bear this down. If you’re living in West, Texas, you know that there is some facility there and you have the right to ask the people in West, Texas, "Hey, what chemicals do you have in there?" Same thing as you drive from here back to your office, you may see any kind of plant or facility, you don’t have to know whether or not they do or do not have anything in there whatsoever, you can ask every facility whether or not they have chemicals, you can ask them if they do, and they can tell you, "Well, we do have chemicals" or "we don’t have chemicals," and if they do, they tell which ones they have.
Q. So we ask the facility, not (the Department of State Health Services)?
A. Right. That’s the way that law works to protect homeland security. DSHS has the right to not disclose this information for homeland security purposes. However, to ensure that those living in neighborhoods, those who live in areas where they want to make sure that things are safe, or those who are thinking about buying a home, when you buy a home you don’t just target on the internet and move in the next day, you drive around the neighborhood. You’re going to know everything that exists in the neighborhood in which you move, and you have the right to inquire before you move in there, every single facility along the way, whether or not they’re storing any kind of chemical whatsoever.
Q. You can just walk on their private property and say, "I have a right to be on your private property and ask you what you have?"
A. Absolutely.
… seconds later
Just to make clear, I mean, you may not be able to walk on private property, but you can send an email or letter or notice to anyone who owns any kind of private property or facility saying that under the Community Right to Know law, you need to tell me within 10 days what chemicals you have, so it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are you are, you’re obligated under that law to respond.
Oh, well, that's different....
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/03/abbott-pivots-access-information-about-chemicals/
So screw regulations, just drive around and be your own fire inspector..... Badges? We don need no steenkin badges!
Wow, just wow.