Chet M. Thompson, president and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), is "very optimistic about the future" of the petrochemical industry.
"The tools are there and the resources are there. I am honored to represent such a great industry," he said.
While the rate of investment in the U.S. petrochemical industry during previous administrations was "certainly attractive," Thompson noted it is "even more attractive" under the Trump administration.
The New York Times reported that, as of late 2017, the Trump administration had formally revoked 67 rules, 635 planned regulations had been withdrawn, 244 proposed regulations had been put on "inactive" status and 700 regulations had been "delayed."
"The biggest threat that looms is the midterm elections because what can be undone can be put back together," Thompson said, addressing delegates to the World Petrochemical Conference 2018 by IHS Markit, held recently in Houston.
"If the House of Representatives goes Democrat," Thompson said, "some of these reforms could get stalled. There are regulations underway to be reformed, but they are not done yet. These things take time."
If either the House of Representatives or the Senate, or both, flip to a Democratic Party majority, "that's going to make the Trump regulatory agenda very, very difficult to finish, so that could really throw a wrench into things," Thompson warned.
Regulatory 'gold standard' a must
Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), agreed with Thompson's assessment of the importance of the upcoming midterm elections.
"The Senate has a very narrow Republican majority. It is 49 to 51, and they need 60 votes to get anything done," Dooley said. "There's no regulatory reform that's going to be able to pass this Congress, even though there's a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate."
The ACC has chosen to focus "strictly on the administration," believing it carries the executive authority to continue to advance some regulations.
"The one we're most interested in deals with having the Trump administration develop a gold standard for risk assessment," Dooley said, joining Thompson in the conference discussion titled "Outlook for Regulatory Framework and Impact on Chemicals."
Dooley believes this "gold standard" would put in place "the soundest and best scientific practices that are based on risk and the assessment of the safety of chemicals in commerce, using mode of action and weight of evidence to ensure the best science and research is incorporated into those determinations."
Further, Dooley said, the risk assessment would reform cost-benefit analyses "that unfortunately had been abused in the Obama administration and overstated the benefits of imposing a regulation."
Another "really significant opportunity" that will benefit the petrochemical industry in the longer term, he said, is the Trump administration's impact on judicial appointments.
"President Trump has the ability to appoint a number of new judges, and a lot of these issues that relate to regulations are often adjudicated by the federal courts," Dooley said. "We are going to see a greater balancing of the interests in a lot of our federal courts that are going to pay dividends over a significant period of time in terms of holding back what we think of as the inappropriate advancement and implementation of future administrations and how they try to impose regulations."
Ultimately, "things couldn't be much better," Dooley concluded. "And I think it is important that we don't take that for granted. When we look at what's transpired in a little over a decade, we have a lot to be very proud of."
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