Federal Regulators’ Response To West Fertilizer Blast Still Uncertain

"In 2006, the EPA’s Chicago office told Midwestern fertilizer dealers it found problems with nearly all their safety plans for poisonous anhydrous ammonia. Fix them, the EPA wrote the dealers, or face possible fines."

"Members of Congress from both parties protested. Among those publicly flaying the Environmental Protection Agency for excessive zeal was a freshman Democrat from Illinois.

At a Capitol Hill hearing on June 28, 2006, Sen. Barack Obama greeted one witness as an old friend and ally from his days in the Illinois Senate: the head of Illinois’ farm-chemical lobby."

Randy Lee Loftis reports for the Dallas Morning News June 22, 2013.