American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015 - 36

Clean Air Regulation

EPA Unveils Its Lower Ozone Standard
WASHINGTON-After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued
stricter federal standards for ground-level ozone in September, several oil and gas
industry associations warned the hundreds of millions of dollars in costs imposed on U.S. businesses would not result
in equivalent benefits.
The EPA announced on Oct. 1 a new
National Ambient Air Quality Standard for
ground-level ozone of 70 parts per billion,
down from 75 ppb. Under the Clean Air
Act, states must meet the standards between 2020 and 2037.
According to EPA estimates, the public health benefits of the updated standard-projected to range between $2.9
billion and $5.9 billion annually in
2025-outweigh the estimated annual cost
of $1.4 billion. EPA says it examined more
than 2,200 studies in its review of the
ozone standard, including 1,000 published since its last review in 2008.
However, Independent Petroleum Association of America Executive Vice
President Lee Fuller responds that EPA's
own analysis indicates lowering the ozone

36 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

NAAQS will not provide improved health
benefits for Americans because the most
populated nonattainment areas of the
country will fail to meet the new standard.
"The EPA should develop cost-effective programs for these enduring nonattainment areas, instead of continuing the fiction that citizens can expect attainment of
this new standard," Fuller urges.
He says the lower ozone limits will impose burdensome, costly and unnecessary
additional regulatory requirements on
businesses and citizens with no significant
health benefits.
Dan Haley, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Oil & Gas
Association, calls EPA's decision to create an even more onerous ozone standard
extremely concerning for Colorado because many areas of the state already are
out of compliance, and state regulators are
struggling to meet the former standard.
"We already contend with naturally occurring ozone, given that we are a mile
above sea level, and companies that operate here have spent millions of dollars
to get into compliance with the old stan-

dard," Haley says. "Moving the target at
this time and failing to give sufficient justification for the change is not only unfair,
but pinches the oil and gas industry at a
time when it can least afford more regulations."

Ozone Reductions
Current primary ozone standards don't
provide the requisite protection to public
health with an adequate safety margin,
EPA contends. The agency says it plans
to retain the average time (eight hours) and
form (annual fourth-highest daily maximum of ozone averaged over three years)
of its current primary standard, while revising down the ozone level to 70 ppb.
EPA adds it also is revising the secondary
ozone standard to provide increased protection against vegetation-related effects
on public welfare by lowering that standard to the same level.
EPA ackowledges the national average
ozone levels fell 33 percent from 1980 to
2014. But the agency says advances in pollution control technology for vehicles
and industry, along with other emission-

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015

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