WASHINGTON, DC — Chris Jahn, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), explained how the group’s more than 150 manufacturers “help create a cleaner future” without being held by the government to their own set of environmental health and safety standards.
On a Monday morning politics event header By Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle asked Jahn how the chemical industry is working in an “environmentally sound manner.”
“First, it’s the products we make that will help create a cleaner future, but it’s also the way we make them that will do it too,” the industry leader said.
The ACC has more than 150 manufacturers as members who produce a wide range of chemicals that Americans use in their daily lives, and Jahn argues that “American success depends on American chemistry.”
Examples of environmentally conscious products from member groups include hydrogen and nuclear energy, he said.
“Strange as it may seem, [it] It requires chemistry to do that. So the products that our members make enable all of those clean technologies. At the same time, the way our members manufacture has also improved over time,” he continued.
Each ACC member must comply with the industry group’s “Responsible Care” program, which requires a “third-party audit of our environmental health and safety protocols,” Jahn explained:
That’s why we have a program we call Responsible Care. Our members are required to comply with that program, and it is a third-party audit of our environmental health and protection protocols. And what we do is we collect their metrics, how they perform on those things. We added that and revealed it publicly, not because anyone in the government is forcing us to, but because it is the right thing to do. And I can sit here and tell you that our industry is cleaner and safer than ever.
The ACC still works within government regulations, and Jahn said the current EPA under the Trump administration is working faster than the Biden administration’s EPA on approving chemicals that would benefit the public in a safe way.
“This is not your grandfather’s chemical industry and we are going to continue to improve as we go,” Jahn told the crowd gathered in Washington, DC. “So how we do it is really important, and what we do is equally important.”
Olivia Rondeau is a political reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find it in X/Twitter and instagram.
