The U.S. Chemical Safety Board released this photo of the aftermath of the Chevron refinery fire in Richmond. The Chemical Safety Board, which investigates the causes of major chemical and refinery accidents, is slated to be unlimited under the Trump administration's budget plan. (Courtesy of Fototaker.net)
One of the Bay Area’s leading proponents of oil refinery oversight is pushing back against the Trump administration’s latest effort to scrap the federal agency that investigates chemical disasters, including fires and explosions.
Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, whose Contra Costa County district includes three major refineries, said the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board — known as CSB — serves a critical role in protecting the public health and safety of communities that live and work near refineries and chemical plants.
The independent oversight board “has people who are dedicated to understanding these very complex facilities, and go in and provide the best information to make sure that they’re safe,” DeSaulnier told KQED. “This is a small but mighty agency that we have helped create in the Bay Area.”
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But under easily overlooked language in the partial budget proposal the Trump administration released Friday, the agency would be shuttered by October 2026, as “part of the Administration’s plans to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government.”
The administration, which has staunchly advocated for unfettered oil and gas production, has consistently sought to reduce or outright eliminate oversight of fossil fuel and chemical industries, arguing they can adequately police themselves.
DeSaulnier, a former member of California’s Air Resources Board, said that notion flies in the face of basic human nature.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-CA, speaks during a House Rules Committee hearing on the impeachment against President Donald Trump on Dec. 17, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)
“If you have a vested interest in [something], there’s a conflict of interest when it comes to the greater good,” he said. “We’ve had instances in the Bay Area where refineries were self-regulating, and we had explosions and people died, and the economy and the price of gasoline changed.
Desaulnier noted that the board was targeted for elimination during the first Trump administration as well, but was saved after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle supported an amendment he authored to preserve its funding.
“I went to Republican colleagues and to the industry, and we actually not only saved it, but we put more money back into it,” he said. “So I’m hopeful that will happen again.”
But in contrast with his first term, Trump is now attempting to establish greater control over independent agencies, a move the Supreme Court appears to at least partially accept. Last month, a divided Court declined to immediately reinstate two independent regulators who were fired by the administration, arguing that doing so may be within the president’s authority.
DeSaulnier said he’s confident the agency can once again be rescued from Trump’s hatchet, and expects some of his Republican colleagues to again stand up for it. But he also acknowledged that it’s “a very, very strange time here in D.C. with this administration.”
“They are doing damage to lots of institutions,” he said. “Everybody can always be looked at for greater efficiencies, and Republicans and Democrats should do this together, and I endeavor to do that. But just eliminating organizations without analyzing them is a horrible, horrible practice. And unfortunately, that’s the atmosphere right now.”
Established by Congress in 1990, the board has no regulatory authority, and last year operated on only a modest budget of just over $14 million.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s refinery in Martinez. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
But it has nonetheless played a key role in investigating the root causes of some of the nation’s most catastrophic chemical accidents, including the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling explosion in 2010 and the Bio-Lab explosion in Georgia last year that forced thousands of residents to shelter in place for weeks.
The board’s safety recommendations have also prompted new federal environmental and workforce safety regulations that have prevented countless disasters, DeSaulnier said.
“A lot of the actual operators [of the facilities] understand that there’s value to having these people come in and make sure that they are not missing anything,” he said. “So just eliminating [the agency] will be detrimental to everyone, including the people who are in the industry.”
