"Dan Luke" wrote
Quite possible. I've mostly dealt with major plants operated by the
major refiners.

I ain't naming names! Anyway, there are enough low rent, half assed plants
around to make the U.S. a target rich environment.

And after the first of them becomes a target, the insurers will clean
house. At least assuming the lawsuit happens, and we don't have
people arguing that half-ass security is reasonable and should not
imply liability.

If that's the case, then I see a lawsuit in their future as well.

That's what bankruptcy and reorganization are for - just ask Monsanto.

And that's a problem. But that's a problem of not enough liability
rather than too much.

I've been to more than a couple of
chemical plants in Mississippi (including the hell that is
Chevron-Pascagoula)

Now, that's a hell of a coincidence, but I said I wasn't naming names...

No, it's not. We work in an incestuous little industry. Everyone
winds up spending time at Chevron-Pascagoula eventually.

and I must say that off-roading in a truck full of
explosives would not be practical anywhere I've been. That's the norm
all along the Gulf Coast.

A little careful reconnoitering is all it would take, with maybe a sapper
squad to blow the fence.

Reconnoisance teams? Sapper squads? Come on - now we're in the range
of a military operation, not a few guys with boxcutters. It's not
reasonable for a civilian installation to be hardened like a military
target. But if it falls to a handful of guys with hand tools, we have
a problem.

Well, I've visited a couple of nuke plants. Yes, I must say their
security is better. I expect that this will become the norm for the
real dangerous chemical plants located in populated areas.

I guess I hope so, but at what cost? Sounds like another good reason to move
plants and jobs overseas.

Like they need another reason? If you have a system where capital is
free to move anywhere but labor is stopped at the border, you are
guaranteeing an inequitable system. Foreign trade and foreign
investment are not the same thing.

Michael