Washington, DC — Today, at the bi-partisan Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on management challenges at the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) called on Chairman Rafel Moure-Eraso and Board Member Manny Erlich to resign from the Board, effective immediately.
“Typically you have to scratch around the surface to uncover arrogance and incompetence, but here it is out in daylight. I deeply believe in the work of the Chemical Safety Board which is the independent, federal agency tasked with investigating chemical accidents. However, because of the unprecedented action Mr. Moure-Eraso and Mr. Erlich took during a meeting in my district, I call on them to resign, effective immediately,” said Congressman Mark DeSaulnier.
The central focus of today’s hearing was a motion passed at the tail end of a public meeting in Congressman Mark DeSaulnier’s district in Richmond, CA on January 28, 2015. The motion, which ultimately passed, reversed approximately a third of the agency’s prior orders relating to personnel, contracting, budgeting, and procedures for Board functions. This motion followed a scathing report from the EPA Inspector General detailing numerous management problems, including purposefully using personal email to conduct government business to avoid scrutiny.
“I know firsthand the importance of proper oversight of the chemical and refinery industry. I have already attended the funerals of constituents who need not lost their lives if the refineries and regulators had done their jobs better. We need to rebuild the process of reforming and the only way to do that is with these resignations,” said DeSaulnier.
Congressman DeSaulnier has represented four of California’s major refineries during his time in government. DeSaulnier served years on the California Air Resources Board and on the Bay Area Air Quality Management district. After the tragic loss of his constituents in a refinery accident in Martinez in 1999, DeSaulnier became involved in crafting the first Industrial Safety Ordinance of its kind nationally.
