Will Senate Bill 54 actually help make refineries more safe ??

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    • Will Senate Bill 54 actually help make refineries more safe ??

      The Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment's analysis of the bill states that the author introduced the bill because, "Under existing law there are no requirements that employees of outside contractors working at chemical manufacturing and processing facilities, including refineries, have a minimum level of skills training, including public safety training. This poses a risk to public health and safety as unskilled and untrained workers may be unfamiliar with the construction work associated with such facilities, general facility operations and emergency plans."

      The analysis continues to explain that the author believes "ensuring that outside contractors that work at chemical refineries have properly trained workers through approved apprenticeship programs will reduce public health and safety risks."

      The commentary's author acknowledges the dangers posed by these facilities and agrees that "several incidents" have occurred at them, and then dismisses them as a threat to anyone's safety.

      In fact, those "incidents" are more than a hundred explosions, fires, spills and other catastrophes that did result in many deaths, injuries and threats to communities, which were in fact linked to inadequate public safety training. That is precisely the issue SB 54 addresses, and precisely why this common-sense legislation is absolutely necessary.

      News extracted from : insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_2…make-refineries-more-safe