Facts At A Glance

MOVING THE GOAL POSTS… DURING THE GAME?

Policymakers Should Finish What They Start Before Proposing New Mandates

“All too often we see politics stand in the way of implementing sound policy. If a standard is set or a mandate is cast, that policy should be allowed to mature to determine its level of success before there’s even a discussion as to whether it should be expanded or not. Time and again, in the case of air quality standards, renewable fuels mandates and facility security, we’ve experienced this political phenomenon that breeds only uncertainty for businesses and ultimately higher prices for American consumers. For once, Lucy should let Charlie Brown kick the football before she pulls it away.”

Charles T. Drevna
Executive Vice President, National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA)
June 28, 2007

An “Unripe” Renewable Fuels Standard

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 included a provision establishing a Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandating the production of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol a year. Now policymakers in Washington are calling for an expanded RFS of up to 36 billion gallons – even before the 7.5 billion gallon standard is implemented and the results are known.

A New Ozone Standard in Spite of Dramatic Air Quality Improvements

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), emissions from the six key pollutants have dropped 54 percent since 1970 – even as the economy grew dramatically. Since 1980, national average ozone levels have dropped 21 percent. The states have not yet fully implemented the current standard for ozone, promulgated in 1997 along with the classification of non-attainment areas in 2004. Instead of creating a new standard, EPA should help localities implement the current standard before imposing a brand new one that could result in further negative impacts on American businesses as they attempt to compete globally. The existing ozone standard protects human health, but the science behind lowering the standard even further, as proposed by EPA last week, is uncertain, and questions have been raised even by the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee (CASAC) about the methodology used in the analyses.

Strength of Original Particulate Matter Standard Apparently Didn’t Matter

EPA’s own analysis shows that the original PM2.5 (fine particulates) standard was more protective than EPA assumed when the standard was first issued in 1997. The new standard issued in September 2006 burdens states further by moving attainment targets before implementation of the 1997 standard is even completed. The EPA should not have changed the original standard before the states could develop plans to meet the original standard.

Congressional Insecurity Trumps Strong Federal Chemical Security Standards

The FY2007 DHS appropriations bill, as enacted, gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until June 2007 to issue regulations for security at what DHS determines to be high-risk chemical facilities. By April 2007, DHS had proposed more than 50 pages of regulations imposing comprehensive Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) on refining and petrochemical companies. The rule requires covered facilities to prepare Security Vulnerability Assessments and to develop and implement Site Security Plans in accordance with specified risk-based performance standards. Even before the proposed regulations could become final, however, environmental activists succeeded in lobbying some members of Congress to introduce legislation to delay and weaken DHS’s ability to implement its chemical facility security regime. If enacted into law, their legislation will, among other things, weaken DHS’s ability to protect from disclosure information transmitted to DHS for regulatory purposes – information that could provide insights into how to attack chemical facilities and neutralize existing defenses – contrary to the FY2007 appropriations law. The proposed legislation leaves refiners and petrochemical manufacturers wondering if the security measures for which they are now spending millions of dollars will have to be replaced with different measures costing even more millions of dollars.