January 25, 2011

Sent via e

- mai l to: mccarthy.gina@epa.gov
Regina McCarthy Assistant Administrator USEPA Washington DC

Re: American Petroleum Institute’s suggestions on Charge Questions to the Clean Ai r Scientific Advisory Committee Regarding Reconsideration of the March 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard , Docket ID No. EPA

– HQ

– OAR

– 2005

– 0172

Please find suggestions by the American Petroleum Institute (“API”) for the charge questions that EPA is now preparing for a review by C lean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) on a teleconference on February 18, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The API is the primary trade association of America‟s oil and natural gas industry, representing mor e than 450 members involved in all aspects of the industry.

The API submitted comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‟s (“EPA‟s”) “Proposed Rule ( Reconsideration ) National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone, Docket
ID No. EPA

– HQ

– OAR

– 20 05

– 0172, which was published on January 19 , 2010 at 75 Fed. Reg

. 2 , 938 (the “Proposed Rule (Reconsideration ” )

. API also presented comments at the public hearing s on February 2, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia and Houston, Texas

.

On December 8 , 2010 Assista nt Administ rator Regina McCarthy filed a declaration to the court ( State of Mississippi , et a l
., v. U.S. Environmental P rotection A gency , Case. No. 08

- 1200 , Howard J. Feldma n Director
Regulatory and Scientific Affairs
1220 L Street, NW Washington, DC 20005

- 4070 USA Telephone 202

- 68 2

- 8340 Fax 202

- 682

- 8270 Email feldman @api.org www.api.org2

D.C. Cir. ) (Ozone NAAQS Litigation)

. In the declaration
, EPA‟s plan to develop questions in
Decemb er 20 10 and January 2011 was addressed , along with the planned public meeting of
CASAC in February 2011

.

O n January 26, 2011 , EPA provided notice in the Federal Register of the CASAC public meeting, to be held as a teleconference on February 18, 2011 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. API has
concerns that this consultation is being held in the format of a half

- day teleconference instead of public meeting where the CASAC committee would have a better opportunity to benefit from public participation to assist in their deliberations. Further
, the scope of the charge questions remains a mystery as we have not been able to learn from the Designated Federal Officer for CASAC, or OAQPS staff the likely date of release of the questions. In light of this circumstance
and to assist EPA
, API prepared the following four questions that we suggest should be reviewed by CASAC as they consider the ( old ) record that you requested the y review:

1. In its proposed reconsideration, EPA concluded that ambient levels of ozone cause

car diovascular mortality independent of other pollutants
, although there is geographic heterogeneity in O3

- associated mortality across the country. How does CASAC resolve this apparent lack of population dose/response?

2. EPA has relie d on single polluta nt epidemiological models in developing estimates
of ozone associated risks
, although there is evidence of confounding by other pollutants
, such as PM. How does CASAC resolve this apparent multi

- pollutant „double counting‟ in estimating
ozone risks?

3. EPA has relie d on a no

- threshold assumption for mortality effects to estimate population risks and regulatory benefits far below the range of proposed ozone standards , all the

way down to policy relevant background levels. How does CASAC resolve the pre dominance of estimated population risk at PRB levels with the relatively modest benefit of a further standard
reduction to 60

- 70 ppb?3

4. EPA recomputed a statistical significance of selected 60 ppb O3 responses from the Adams 2006 study of 6.6 hour cha mber exposures under quasi

- continuous exercise . This
conflict ed with the conclusions and conventional statistical approaches of the author and other researchers. How does CASAC resolve this departure from the accepted practice of assessing all
of the avai lable data?

API hopes that you will include these questions as you finalize the charge that EPA will
submit to CASAC

. Please contact me at (202) 682

- 8340 or feldman@api.org with any questions.

Sincerely,

/s/

Howard J. Feldman

Cc:
Steve P age ( page.steve@epa.gov ) Lydia Wegman ( wegman.lydia@epa.gov )