API Testifies to EPA on Importance of Consistency and Greater Transparency in Rulemaking

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2020 – API today testified during the EPA’s hearing on the proposed rule “Increasing Consistency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process.” API supports this proposal to provide consistency and greater transparency in analyzing the benefits and costs of proposed rules, which would ensure that the agency provides clarity in how new regulations will benefit the public, industry and all stakeholders.

“We encourage the EPA to finalize this proposal expeditiously and, to the extent possible, require that data and analyses used in establishing and evaluating environmental, health, welfare and economic impacts be transparent and replicable,” API Senior Counselor of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Howard Feldman said. “This proposal is a step forward in providing a consistent process for new regulations to calculate benefits and costs that can inform the Agency as how to move forward with a rulemaking initiative. Implementation of a robust benefit and cost analysis process could support the Agency and other stakeholders to focus on rulemakings with the best opportunities to support further emission reductions.”

API supports a smart and effective regulatory approach that protects public health and the environment. In the past decade, the nation has continued to achieve environmental progress under current regulations. In fact, according to the EPA, combined emissions from the six common pollutants declined by 7 percent from 2017 to 2019. From 2018 to 2019, the number of days listed as unhealthy for sensitive groups dropped by 40 percent across the U.S. as the amount of criteria pollutants in our air continued to fall. Americans are breathing the cleanest air in decades as the combined emissions of criteria and precursor pollutants were reduced by 77 percent between 1970 and 2019.

“The oil and natural gas industry has contributed substantially to these improvements, both by reducing its direct emissions and by supplying cleaner fuels to the power and transportation sectors,” said Feldman. “Under improved Clean Air Act provisions such as those being proposed in this rule, continued innovation and technologies developed by the oil and natural gas industry can build on these achievements and provide benefits based on sound benefit-cost analyses.”

Read Feldman’s full testimony here.

API represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 600 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports 10.9 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization. In its first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.