**GAO-07-763**                      Published: Jul 27, 2007. Publicly Released: Aug 16, 2007.                  

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## Highlights

Oil in aboveground tanks can leak into soil and nearby water, threatening human health and wildlife. To prevent certain oil spills, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule in 1973. EPA estimated that, in 2005, about 571,000 facilities were regulated under this rule. When finalizing amendments to the rule in 2002 and 2006 to both strengthen the rule and reduce industry burden, EPA analyzed the amendments' potential impacts and concluded that the amendments were economically justified. As requested, GAO assessed the reasonableness of EPA's economic analyses of the 2002 and 2006 SPCC amendments, using Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines for federal agencies in determining regulatory impacts, among other criteria, and discussed EPA's analyses with EPA officials.

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## Topics

Natural Resources and Environment

Cost analysisCost effectiveness analysisEconomic analysisEnvironmental lawEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental protectionFederal regulationsFinancial analysisNoncomplianceOil spillsPollution controlPublic healthRegulatory agenciesBenefit-cost trackingProgram costsProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementation