Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is leading a coalition of 18 states urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen cybersecurity protections tied to a proposed federal chemical facility database.
The coalition filed formal comments with the EPA over a proposed rule that would revise federal chemical accident prevention requirements. While the states support efforts to reduce regulatory burdens, they warned a proposed public database containing facility-level chemical information could create new security risks.
“Oklahoma is home to critical energy and chemical facilities that power this nation,” Drummond said. “We have an obligation to protect those facilities and the communities around them, and that means making sure sensitive information about what’s stored there doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.”
According to the coalition, the database could include chemical inventories, facility layouts and maps showing potential toxic release zones. The attorneys general argued that making the information publicly accessible online could expose sensitive infrastructure details to hackers or foreign adversaries.
The coalition asked the EPA to conduct security audits before launching the database, limit information that could identify specific facilities and involve federal cybersecurity and homeland security officials in the system’s design.
“The proposed rule fixes many of the Biden Administration missteps, but we ask the EPA to implement rigorous access controls on the Data Tool so that it can ensure that data access initiatives do not inadvertently introduce new vulnerabilities,” the coalition wrote in its letter.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia joined the filing.
