American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2018 - 16

IndustryDigest
(publicly owned treatment works).
However, the effective date of that rule
was postponed until Aug. 29, 2019,
after the Pennsylvania Independent Oil
& Gas Association complained that
EPA inaccurately classified a number of
traditionally conventional Appalachian
formations as unconventional (AOGR,
November 2016, pg. 16).
In December 2016, EPA agreed to
review and potentially update its rules for
handling oil and gas wastes under a
consent decree to settle Environmental
Integrity Project et al v. McCarthy, which
was filed by a coalition of environmental
organizations in May of that year (AOGR,
February 2017, pg. 18). r

Pruitt Directs EPA To
Get 'Back To Basics'
For NAAQS Reviews
WASHINGTON-Following his prior
month's directive on rule-making
transparency (see "EPA Seeks To
Expand Transparency Obligations For
New Regulations," AOGR, May 2018),
Administrator Scott Pruitt on May 10
issued a memorandum outlining a "back
to basics" process for reviewing
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
under the Clean Air Act.
In a news release, Pruitt indicates the
memo is intended to ensure EPA and its
independent Clean Air Scientific
Advisory Committee (CASAC) follow a
transparent, timely and efficient process
for reviewing and revising public
health- and welfare-based NAAQS. The
memo also commits EPA to finalizing
its next ozone NAAQS by October 2020
and its next particulate matter NAAQS
by December 2020.
"The principles laid out in this
memorandum will reform the process
for setting national air quality standards
in a manner consistent with cooperative
federalism and the rule of law," Pruitt
says.
He adds that the reforms called for in
his memo advance the initiatives set out
in President Trump's April order
directing EPA to ensure efficient and
cost-effective implementation of the
NAAQS program (see "President
Targets Permits And NAAQS," AOGR,
May 2018).
Pruitt's memo sets out five principles
for NAAQS reviews:
* Meet statutory deadlines;
16 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

* Address all CAA provisions for
NAAQS reviews;
* Streamline and standardize the
process for developing and reviewing
key policy-relevant information;
* Differentiate science and policy
judgments in the review process; and
* Issue timely implementation
regulations and guidance.
Pruitt says his memo is intended to
"ensure EPA is addressing-and CASAC
is providing advice on-the scientific
questions Congress intended to inform
the administrator's review, revision and
implementation of the NAAQS," as well
as "provide critical technical and policy
context for the public, co-regulators and
EPA as they implement these
standards."
Included in the principles for
NAAQS reviews outlined in the memo
are considering:
* The relative contribution of air
pollution concentrations of natural as
well as anthropogenic activity; and
* Any adverse public health,
welfare, social, economic or energy
effects that may result from various
strategies for attaining and maintaining
NAAQS.
The memo also directs CASAC to
consider what scientific evidence has
been developed since the last review to
indicate whether a current NAAQS
needs to be revised. And it emphasizes
the importance of ensuring that states,
tribes and local governments "have an
opportunity to provide feedback prior to
any proposed NAAQS revision."
It encourages agency personnel to
"establish a clearer distinction between
the purely scientific findings of
integrated science assessments and the
wider range of policy concerns the
administrator must consider in making
judgments about requisite standards,"
and asks CASAC "to distinguish clearly
between scientific and policy advice."
The administrator's memo also
states, "Rules and guidance should
provide information relevant to
submitting and considering state
implementation plans and
preconstruction permit applications, and
may address potential tools for
regulatory relief to address background
concentrations and sources of pollution
outside the control of state and local air
agencies."
Former EPA Assistant Administrator
for the Office of Air and Radiation
(2001-05) Jeff Holmstead, now a

partner at Bracewell LLP, calls the
reforms long overdue and says, "It is
good to see that the public finally will
get an authoritative accounting of the
adverse effects caused by some of EPA's
regulatory mandates."
Adds 2005-09 EPA Deputy
Administrator Marcus Peacock,
"Setting air quality standards is murky
enough without muddying the distinctly
different duties of scientists and
political appointees."
And U.S. Senator Shelley Moore
Capito, R-W.V., says, "I applaud EPA
for taking this common-sense step to fix
our broken process for setting and
implementing ozone standards."
She compares Pruitt's reforms to the
approach she and others in Congress
have taken in the Ozone Standards
Implementation Act, S 263 and HR 806.
r

Industry Spokesmen
See Positives In DOD's
Eastern Gulf Report
WASHINGTON-Two oil and gas
industry associations took a different
view from media reports that concluded
the Department of Defense's
compatibility assessment for the Eastern
Gulf of Mexico "is likely to provide
significant fodder to Florida leaders,
Democrats and others who want to keep
the Eastern Gulf closed to oil and gas
drilling."
Michael D. Griffin, DOD's
undersecretary for research and
engineering, released Preserving
Military Readiness in the Eastern Gulf
of Mexico to the chairmen of the U.S.
House committees on Armed Services
and Natural Resources in early May.
The report calls the Eastern Gulf "an
irreplaceable national asset used by the
DOD to develop and maintain the
readiness of our combat forces."
"Simply stated, if oil and gas
development was to extend east of the
Military Mission Line without sufficient
surface-limiting stipulations and/or oil
and gas activity restrictions mutually
agreed to by the DOD and Department
of Interior, military flexibility in the
region would be lost, and test and
training activities would be severely
affected," the report concludes.
However, National Ocean Industries
Association President Randall Luthi
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2018
