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The Honorab le Gina McCarthy Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsy lvania A venue NW Washi ng ton, DC 20460 Dear Adm i nistrator McCarthy: July 14,2014

We have serious concerns with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Clay Ceramics Manufacturing (NESHAP) (79 Fed. Reg. 75622), which is expected to be finalized by September 2015. In this draft rule, EPA proposes to regulate "major sources" of air emissions in the ceramic tile industry, even though EPA adm its in the preamble that there are no majo r sources in this industry t o regulate. EPA even admits that, because t h ese regulations w ill regu late no one, they h ave no environ mental b enefits

- an adm i ss io n t h at acknowledges th e n eed lessness of this p roposed regulation. Volw1tary action by the tiie industry to reduce emissions has resulted in all ceramic tile manufacturing fac i l ities in the country remaining below the major source threshold. Industry has voluntarily spent millions of dollar s to permanently reduce emissions, and their success has occurred at least four years earlier than if industry had waited for EPA to promulgate a major source NESHAP. These in i ti atives have been developed at considerab le cost and expense to domest ic tile produ cers. These in itiatives i nclude a t h ird

- p arty certified environm en tal f o o tpri nt for North American ce ramic tile and th ousands of pro ducts c erti fied to th e A me r ic an Natio na l Standards In s titute-accredited (ANSI) G reen Squared sustaina b i li ty standard. Furthermore, since there are no major sources of air emissions in the ceramic tile industry, E I• A's proposed ruie r e ii e s on hypochetical manu l actming and air emi s sions control strategies , flawed scientific data from an non- validated stack test metho d , non-validated assumptions taken from other industr i es with no ceramic t il e precedents, and generally questionable science. Us i ng questio nable data and conclus i ons based on flawed science in federal regulatio n sets an unaccep tab l e precedent. We recognize that EPA entered into a Consent Dec r ee wit h Sierra Club to settl e a dead! ine lawsuit tiled by that group. 

### Sierra Club v. EPA , 850 F.2d 300 (D.D.C. 2012). The 

### Sierra Club Consent Decree requires EPA to finalize regulations for the major sources in the Clay Ceramics Manufacturing Category. However, under the Administrative Procedure Act, EPA may not agree in a Consent Decree to adopt a particular regulatory outcome. A decision not to establish standards is a fina l ru lemaking. Furthe r , the r e are no Consent D e cr ee requirements appli c able specifically to the ce ramic til e ind u stry because, a lthough i t is a sub category of t he C l ay C eramics Man u fac t uring Ca t ego r y, PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

### there are no major source ceramic tile p lants. Even if EPA had the authority to agree to the outcome of a rulemaking in a Consent D ecree, the Consent Decree's directive will be satisfied when EPA finalizes regulations for the brick manufacturing and sanitaryware manufacturing industries , subcategories of Clay Ceramics Manufacturing for which there are major sources. Since the re are n o costs or emissions reductions expected under the Clay Ceramics Manufacturing rule, it i s our request that the standards for ceramic tile manufacturing not be finalized. Any additional time spent on an action that applies to no one would be a waste of federa l government resources and taxpayer dollars.
S ince re ly,

Un ited States Senator

Deb Fischer 

# .~ Lamar Alexander U n ited States Senator United States Senator

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cc: Janet McCabe, Acting Assistant Administrator for Air