Why Are Media Ignoring TX Fertilizer Plant's History Of Skirting Regulations?

[white cloud]

All three cable news networks failed to highlight a West, Texas, fertilizer plant's storage of 270 tons of ammonium nitrate -- 1,350 times the amount allowed without disclosure to the federal government -- in reporting on the April 17 explosion at that plant. The networks also virtually ignored the plant's history of violating state and federal regulations.

An April 20 Reuters report noted that fertilizer plants and depots must report to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whenever they hold 400 pounds or more of ammonium nitrate, a potentially explosive chemical that can be used in bomb making. Reuters reported, however, that the plant that owned the company, West Fertilizer, "did not tell [DHS] about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principle regulators of ammonium nitrate ... unaware of any danger there."

Reuters quoted Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) as saying, "It seems this manufacturer was willfully off the grid. ... This facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold amount ... yet we understand that DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up."
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/23/why-are-media-ignoring-tx-fertilizer-plants-his/193739

[Ilsa]

1. I hear ya.

It's like crickets when it comes to this story.

I realize no one wants to speculate and get the story wrong, but this is a great opportunity for serious investigative journalism. Conclusions can be drawn from this, too. For example, if one of Perry's poached companies moves here, even if they are ethical, they are going to have to relax their ethics in order to contain costs to compete with the other dangerous facilities.

Texas has a race to the bottom happening. Let's hope the rest of the US ignores Perry.