Claude Morgan

About the author: Claude Morgan is a freelance writer living in Portland, Maine.

By the Clean Air Act of 1990, the United States Congress required an estimated 66,000 U.S. chemical facilities to make public a record of their inventories, their accident histories, and "worst-case scenarios" in the event of a fire, a spill, an explosion, a mechanical failure, or other incident that might expose the public to a disastrous release of toxins into the environment. The information was to be submitted to the public and published on the Internet in 1999. But the chemical industry is fighting the electronic publication of worst-case scenarios or accident histories, claiming that terrorists or criminals can use this information to blackmail, threaten, or sabotage chemical factories. Helped by their allies...