API Comments on: 

EPA's Petroleum 

Refinery Sector Risk 

and Technology 

Review and New 

Source Performance 

Standards 

EPA Public Hearing, Galena Park, TX 

Matthew Todd 

8/5/2014 
API Comments at the August 5, 2014 EPA Public Hearing on the Proposed 

Petroleum Refinery Sector Risk and Technology Review and New Source 

Performance Standards 

Good morning. My name is Matthew Todd and I'm speaking today on 

behalf of the American Petroleum Institute. API represents over 600 oil and 

natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most 

of America's energy, supports more than 9.8 million jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. 

economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to 

advance all forms of energy, including alternatives. 

Our members are dedicated to continuous efforts to improve the 

compatibility of our operations with the environment and our communities while 

economically developing energy resources and supplying high quality products 

and services to consumers. We recognize our responsibility to work with the 

public, the government, and others to develop and to use natural resources in an 

environmentally sound manner while protecting the health and safety of our 

employees and the public. Many of our members will be directly impacted by the 

proposed Refinery Sector Rule which is the focus of today's public hearing. 

I have three key points that I would like to make today. 
1. Air quality in the United States has improved significantly, continues to 

improve, and our industry is doing its part to contribute to this success. 

2. After significant effort, the US EPA has concluded in this rulemaking that 

the public is protected with an ample margin of safety. 

3. The safe operation of our refineries to protect our workers and the 

community is our number one priority. 

My first point is that air quality has improved significantly, continues to 

improve and our industry is contributing to these improvements. According to the 

EPA Report on the Environment, mean benzene concentrations have dropped by 

66% from 1994-2009 nationwide. Locally, the improvements to air quality have 

been even more dramatic. The Houston Regional Monitoring Network, an 

extensive collection of ambient air monitoring stations across the Houston area, 

shows an 85% reduction of BTEX, a mixture of key pollutants. In fact, since 2006, 

all of their monitors have been well below the TCEQ's Air Monitoring Comparison 

Values for benzene. This term is used by TCEQ to collectively describe the safe 

concentrations of a particular chemical in the air used to evaluate ambient air 

monitoring data. The U.S. oil and natural gas industry has been a key part of that 

improvement, investing over $268 billion since 1990 toward improving the 

environmental performance of its products, facilities and operations. In the year 
2012 alone, approximately $14.9 billion was expended on environmental 

protection. 

My second key point is that the EPA has concluded in this rulemaking that 

the public is protected with an ample margin of safety from refinery emissions. 

Once again, EPA has reached this conclusion, this time after developing an 

entirely new protocol for refineries to report their emissions and a multimillion 

dollar information collection request, including data collection from every refinery 

for all emission sources and direct emission testing for a number of emission 

sources. All of this information is then processed through conservative risk 

modeling which has determined that communities around refineries are 

protected with an ample margin of safety from refinery emissions. 

While this is my final point today, it goes without saying that the safe 

operation of our refineries to protect our workers and the community is our 

number one priority. As such, API will be taking a close look to ensure these 

proposed regulations don't compromise the safety of our workers and the 

community. For example, in this rule, EPA has proposed requirements prohibiting 

the use of equipment whose sole purpose is to prevent over-pressuring of 
equipment and avoid potentially catastrophic damage. This prohibition will not 

only increase safety risk but will require many additional flares. Obviously, this 

part of the proposal needs to be revised from a safety perspective. Our written 

comments will address this provision in greater detail, as well as other parts of 

the proposal. 

In closing, API appreciates the opportunity to provide this testimony on this 

important rule making for our industry. I'd like to reiterate that: 

1. Air quality in the United States has improved significantly, continues to 

improve, and our industry is doing its part to contribute to this success. 

2. After significant effort, the EPA has concluded in this rulemaking that the 

public is protected with an ample margin of safety from refinery emissions. 

3. The safe operation of our refineries to protect our workers and the 

community is our number one priority. 

We will be submitting detailed comments to the docket to ensure that the final 

regulation doesn't inhibit the safe operation of our refineries, doesn't increase 

emissions from any sources, and is cost-effective. 

Thank you.