Thirty years ago, President George H.W. Bush signed so-called Bhopal provision amendments to the Clean Air Act. Named after history’s worst toxic chemical accident that killed or injured more than 500,000 people in India the provision was meant to ensure  such a tragedy would never happen here.

The Trump EPA cherry-picked data and ignored accidents, explosions and fires to justify rolling back Obama administration regulations that toughened the original rules.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler echoed chemical industry criticism of the Obama rule, writing in December that the Trump rule reduced “unnecessary regulations and regulatory costs.” Weakening the Obama rule benefits billionaire Len Blavatnik whose umbrella company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

A Dutch chemical company, LyondellBasell Industries, which Blavatnik helped create, is building a $2.4 billion plant near Houston that will be helped by the lax regulations. It is expected to open next year.

In April 2017, chemical company attorney Steven D. Cook, who worked for LyondellBasell, attended a