Eric Johnson says John Oxendine's new rules for explosive dust could kill jobs

Oct 06, 2009 (Savannah Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- IPSU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Former state Sen. Eric Johnson says state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine's new combustible dust rules could kill jobs.

Oxendine on Friday made permanent the temporary rules he issued last year after the deadly disaster at Imperial Sugar Co.'s local refinery.

Investigators have concluded that combustible sugar dust fueled the Feb. 7, 2008, inferno at Port Wentworth, which killed 14 people.

Oxendine called the rules a "simple matter of safety," but Johnson, the former Savannah Republican lawmaker, said they're "redundant" and "unnecessary."

The dispute may be as much about politics as about safety: Johnson, Oxendine and five others are seeking the GOP nomination for governor in 2010.

Oxendine said Johnson likely raised the issue for campaign purposes.

The rules have been in the works since last year, so "it's interesting" that Johnson "waited until now to criticize something," Oxendine said.

But Johnson spokesman Ben Fry noted that Oxendine's office -- not Johnson's campaign -- released a letter the former senator wrote to the commissioner's office.

"It's pretty obvious who's doing what for political reasons," Fry said.

The letter asked that it be considered at a hearing Oxendine held on Friday. After the hearing, Oxendine, who oversees fire safety, used his authority under state law to issue the permanent rules.

In the letter, Johnson said he understands "all too well' the dangers of combustible dust.

But, he said, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working on its own new rules and that Congress also is grappling with the issue.

In view of such efforts, Johnson said, Oxendine's rules are an "additional unnecessary compliance and reporting burden" on Georgia businesses.

The 56-page document requires industries that produce combustible dust to adopt emergency plans, train workers how to evacuate and conduct annual drills.

They must also register with the state, designate a safety officer and comply with various National Fire Protection Association standards.

Johnson said the rules impose unnecessary costs on Georgia businesses and make it harder for them to compete with those in other states.

He said the regulations go "above and beyond standard safety protocols" and "might end up costing our state vital jobs."

If Oxendine thought they were needed, he should have asked the state legislature to enact them, Johnson said.

"A fair and open debate among people's representatives" would be a better venue for the decision than "a hearing room of a state bureaucracy," he said.

Oxendine responded that Johnson is too eager to defer to the federal government

And he denied that the rules make it harder for Georgia firms to compete.

"We have taken input from the industry," he said."

"It may be cheaper to make products in... sweat shops... where you don't have any safety rules," he added. "I think Georgia workers do want safety rules."

Moreover, the commissioner added, "if every time the executive branch had to do something, you had to go to the legislature, nothing would ever happen."

He also said Johnson could have raised the issue last year in the Senate, but didn't.

Oxendine speculated that Johnson, an architect, is worried that the rules "might not be good" for some of his clients.

"These rules will affect a wide variety of industries," Fry countered. "To suggest that Eric Johnson did this for the benefit of just one industry is just wrong," he said.

Among others, representatives of paper and forestry products, as well as the poultry and farming industries, have opposed the rules.

Johnson recently stepped down from his Senate seat so he could campaign full time for governor. He said he learned of the proposed rules while serving on the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.

Oxendine's office teamed up with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives on one of the first probes of the Imperial Sugar disaster.

Despite the rules, the agency does not plan to inspect reconstruction of the refinery at Port Wentworth, Oxendine spokesman Glenn Allen said.

The state delegated authority for fire safety inspections of buildings such as the refinery to Chatham County in 1998.

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