Feb. 24 Business Watch: Distressed chemical makers get some relief; carbon capture MOF company raises funds

It’s more than a year into Donald J. Trump’s second term, and business leaders have no more certainty about the administration’s foreign trade policy than when it started. That became clear on Friday, when the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump had no legal authority to impose tariffs the way he did—and then the president turned around and announced the imposition of tariffs by another route.The tariffs themselves are mostly a nonevent for the chemical industry. As C&EN senior correspondent Alex Tullo reported yesterday, the new tariffs largely exempt chemical products, just as the old tariffs did. Yet the economic turmoil the tariffs have created across the globe definitely do affect the chemical industry. Chemical company executives and the trade associations that represent them are loathe to publicly criticize Trump and his administration. And some companies are no doubt happy to see tariffs on competing imports. But, after Trump’s announcement of the new tariffs, the pleas for predictability and certainty in trade policy were telling.Top stories from C&ENAfter years of seeming to ignore the problems of Europe’s chemical industry, the region’s politicians are starting to promise assistance to combat high energy costs and growing import competition.The Make America Healthy Again movement has set its sights on aluminum-based salts and other adjuvants added to vaccines to boost their efficacy. Vaccine scientists are alarmed.The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed modifying an industrial safety regulation covering 11,000 chemical-related manufacturing and storage facilities.Project Omega has launched with $12 million in seed funding to