Senator Markey has been an active, persistent proponent of stronger security safeguards for all chemical plant facilities and transportation infrastructure. 

Everett, Massachusetts is the site of the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) importation terminal in the United States and the only LNG terminal in the country that is located in an urban area. As the author of the 1979 law regulating remote LNG siting, Senator Markey is keenly aware of the dangers posed by a possible terrorist attack on an LNG facility or transportation vessel.

Since 2004, Senator Markey has offered legislation to require the use of cost-effective safer chemicals and processes at chemical facilities in order to reduce the consequences of a terrorist attack. The chemical industry has vigorously opposed these efforts, supporting exemptions for thousands of facilities that contain toxic chemicals from having to comply with even the inadequate law on the books. In the House of Representatives, Markey led negotiations on comprehensive chemical security legislation that closed the loopholes and gave the federal government the tools it needed to keep these facilities safe.