has usurped the cachet of Presidential attention, NSF is replacing the old PYI with a National Science F o u n d a t i o n Young Investigator (NYI) award. The new NYI program appears n e a r l y identical to the former PYI program, except that only about 150 awards will be made each year. Half the PFF awards will go to engineers, half to scientists. There is no stipulation as to how the NYI
awards will be distributed, but if they follow the pattern of PYIs, they will also go about half to engineers, half to scientists. Awardees in both programs will be chosen on the basis of a nomination, rather than a research proposal. University presidents may nominate two candidates per year for the PFF program; department heads will nominate NYIs as they did PYIs. David Hanson, Pamela Zurer
Sterling Chemicals seeks commodity bargains As an increasing number of chemical companies put their assets up for sale to survive today's stormy commodity business climate, Sterling Chemicals is taking the opposite tack. Sterling's chairman, Gordon Cain, who profited handsomely in the mid-1980s by buying ailing petrochemical businesses and waiting for the rebound, is once again shopping for bargains. To focus the effort, the Houston-based firm has created an Office of Corporate Development and named to a new vice presidency heading that office Robert W. Roten, formerly commercial vice president. "We believe that Sterling's future growth will come through acquisitions, commercial partnerships, and continuing construction of additional facilities that fit our strategy as a low-cost producer of commodity petrochemicals. The current depressed chemical markets will offer opportunities" as other firms evaluate existing businesses, says J. Virgil Waggoner, Sterling's president and chief executive officer. Phillips Petroleum and Tenneco are among companies that have recently put assets up for sale (C&EN, Sept. 16, page 13). But Waggoner tells C&EN that he expects over the next six to 18 months "several of the big companies will be announcing that they will be selling some of their assets as they go through portfolio analyses to determine which of their core businesses they really want to keep, and which ones do not seem to fit their long-term corporate goals." As such businesses become available, he notes, "we just want to be
uct, is having an impact on earnings, which could make financing more difficult, he concedes. "But, we have a strong balance sheet with relatively little debt, so I think our capacity to finance is reasonably good." Still, companies seeking to go bottom fishing in the commodity business need to have "deep pockets," notes Ron Gist, a senior consultant at Pace Consultants, Houston. "It's a good time to buy such businesses considering the bargains [an acquiring company] might get, but it's a bad time if it wants to make money in the short term. Once a company has picked up the bargain, it will need to stick with it a couple of more years, through a 1993 or 1994 type of time frame." Susan Ainsworth
Court tells insurers to pay for dioxin cleanup
Waggoner: spend Up to $500 million sure that we are in a position to either respond, or hopefully initiate, some of the [moves or acquisitions] that we think will make sense for Sterling's growth." For example, he adds, Sterling seeks to pick up a commodity business that is similar to its intermediate petrochemical businesses, but that would not rise and fall in tandem with styrène. A likely candidate would be a business sharing some of Sterling's current customers, and allowing Sterling to "apply what we euphemistically describe as the Sterling style of operations," which might involve operating with "a meaner, leaner organization." Waggoner says he's not sure how much Sterling would be willing to spend on its purchases, but if it makes one or more deals without outside financing help, it possibly could spend up to $500 million. The weak condition of the market for styrene, Sterling's cornerstone prod-
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has joined the growing number of courts holding that insurers must reimburse policyholders for costs incurred in cleaning up Superfund sites. In an opinion written by Judge A. Raymond R a n d o l p h , t h e t h r e e judge court holds that liability for environmental cleanup costs quite naturally fits the common and ordinary understanding of "damages" covered by comprehensive general liability policies. The case involves Independent Petrochemical Corp., which in 1971 agreed to help its customer, Northern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co. (NEPACCO), dispose of dioxincontaminated waste. Independent hired a private contractor, Russell M. Bliss, to get rid of 20,000 gal of waste. The waste, mixed with oil, ended up sprayed over various sites in eastern Missouri. This in turn led to the federal buyout of the whole town of Times Beach, and spending of millions of dollars by the federal government and the state of Missouri to clean up the mess. The U.S. sought reimbursement from Independent for the firm's share of the cleanup cost. The company's potential liability is estimated to be at least $96 million, but it is September 23, 1991 C&EN
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News of the Week bankrupt. However, as the court notes, between 1971 and 1983— when the current case began—the company purchased 67 comprehensive general liability policies from 23 insurers. The court holds these insurers responsible for the cleanup costs. Dell E. Perelman, senior assistant general counsel for the Chemical Manufacturers Association, points out that the D.C. court decision follows in the steps of the majority of recent court decisions. He adds that the decision is good news, in that it contradicts a related case involving NEPACCO directly, which "is a thorn in the side of policyholders." In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held that under Missouri law, NEPACCO's insurers did not have to reimburse the company for its share of the Times Beach cleanup costs, because the costs were not "damages" covered by insurance policies. But Perelman does not expect the D.C. decision to have any far-reaching impact. Insurance law is a state issue. "One of the things that makes it so expensive and so difficult," he explains, is that "each state has to decide on its own what these contracts mean." Federal courts get involved only in diversity cases, where policyholders are in one state and insurer or insurers in another state or states. And in a diversity case the federal court's duty, Randolph says, is to "ascertain and apply state law." Janice Long
OSHA fines Union Carbide $2.8 million Pending appeal, Union Carbide has been fined $2.8 million by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration for "willful violations" related to the explosion and fire that destroyed part of its ethylene oxide plant in Seadrift, Tex., last March. The accident, which dealt a blow to Carbide's vigorous post-Bhopal efforts for an accident-free record in its plants around the world, killed one person and injured 32. It also knocked out much of the company's ethylene oxide capacity, resulting in 6
September 23, 1991 C&EN
a drop of about $50 million in earnings this year. OSHA Administrator Gerard F. Scannell says Carbide operated the plant "in a manner which created the potential for catastrophic explosion." Not only was there an explosion of the ethylene oxide reactor, but the blast also sent flying metal "shrapnel" that punctured methane lines nearby. OSHA's investigation, says Scannell, "showed that several exits from the area were locked, and some employees had to climb over a fence to exit the area." The fine is one of the largest ever imposed on a chemical firm by OSHA. But it is less than the $4 million Phillips paid last month for an October 1989 explosion at its polyethylene plant in Pasadena, Tex. Carbide, which faces many lawsuits stemming from the accident, is especially miffed by use of the term "willful" in OSHA's citation. Carbide's chairman, Robert Kennedy,
says "such accusations are unjust and an affront to every Carbide employee." Kennedy notes that only last March, OSHA gave Carbide a special award for safety performance at Seadrift. He claims that no points in the citation relate to the actual March 12 event. Carbide plans to appeal by the deadline this Friday. According to Carbide's investigation, the accident was apparently caused by a chemical quirk resulting in explosion of ethylene oxide vapors, catalyzed by a "unique" iron oxide compound that formed under high-temperature conditions. The vapors were formed when ethylene oxide circulation was stalled "by a combination of several factors." "Neither this unique iron oxide nor its catalytic reaction with ethylene oxide was known to Union Carbide or the industry, or reported in the scientific literature," says Carbide. Wil Lepkowski
Former ACS chairman Milton Hams dead at 85 Milton Harris, chairman of the American Chemical Society Board of D i r e c t o r s from 1966 to 1970 and Priestley medalist in 1980, died of cancer Sept. 12. A self-acknowledged "born optimist," Harris in his Priestley Medal address mirrored his enthusiasm for the future of science and technology. "Certainly the future is filled with uncertainties," he said. "But in my experience the optimists generally have been proven better realists than the pessimists." Harris' experience with science began at the age of 10, when he was drawn to the technology section of his local library. His interest in chemistry was k i n d l e d in h i g h school, and he graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. degree in c h e m i s t r y in 1926. He earned his Ph.D. degree at Yale University in 1929. Harris was well known for his
work with fibers, which included the d e v e l o p m e n t of a shrink-proof process for wool fabrics. In 1931 he led a group of scientists at the former National Bureau of Standards in setting u p an i n s t i t u t e for studying the properties of textiles. In 1945 he founded Harris Research Laboratories, a consulting company that was purchased by Gillette in 1956. He joined Gillette as director of research and vice president—positions he held until his retirement in 1966. His work was recognized with multiple awards over the years. Among them were the Olney Medal from the American Association of Textile Chemists & Colorists in 1945, the Perkin Medal from the Society of the Chemical Industry in 1970, and the 1982 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Chemists. Dolores Miner
