Sen. Jon Corzine

ince 9/11, Jon Corzine has been the moving force behind legislation that would require chemical companies to make their facilities less vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The Bush administration has done little to improve security or to assess the vulnerability of the nation's 15,000 facilities-including chemical manufacturing plants, petroleum tank farms, and pesticide companies-that contain large quantities of potentially deadly chemicals. Instead, the White House is relying on voluntary safety programs developed by chemical-industry trade groups, which represent only about a third of all companies that use or store high volumes of toxic chemicals.

Corzine, 57, says that a ride down the New Jersey Turnpike provides chilling evidence that security needs to be improved at chemical plants across the country. "For years, I commuted by one place off of the Pulaski Skyway, where somebody could pull a car over and drop some kind of incendiary into a chlorine plant," he said. "When you fly into Newark airport in New Jersey, you see all of our refineries and chemical plants up and down the turnpike, seven or eight of which are located right in the midst of the most densely populated part of the state," he added. "It doesn't take a lot of analysis to know it's something we should attend to."

After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Corzine proposed legislation that would require chemical companies to assess and improve security at their facilities. Industry groups are fighting provisions in the bill that force chemical-firm executives to look for safer alternatives to their current practices for manufacturing and storing chemicals. In October, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a watered-down version of that bill, which Corzine called "inadequate, but better than nothing." The full Senate has not taken up the measure, and few Republicans support it in the House.