API applauds new homeland security alert system

Mar 13, 2002 12:00 PM

The American Petroleum Institute (API) issued the following statement on the White House Homeland Security Office’s newly proposed alert system for potential terrorist attacks:

“The new color-coded warning system announced (March 12) by Governor Ridge is a sensible common sense approach to making sure that all Americans are quickly informed of any threat of a terrorist attack. It will permit oil and natural gas facilities to have a simple and uniform way of knowing how to evaluate any report of a threat to their facilities and the surrounding communities.

“The industry has long assigned a high priority to protecting its facilities from attack. Since September 11, we have taken thousands of actions designed to further enhance the security of pipelines, refineries, oil and natural gas platforms, and other facilities. We recommend quick adoption of the new warning system by all levels of government. We will eventually incorporate the new system into our industry security guidance and suggest that our companies adopt it for their own security plans.”