Attorney General Bonta Opposes EPA’s Proposed Emission Standards for Marine Tank Vessel Loading Operations for Failing to Fully Address Health Risks

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta, together with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), joined a multistate comment letter opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Marine Tank Vessel Loading Operations, emission standards for toxic air pollutants from facilities that load crude oil, gasoline, and other fuels or chemicals onto a marine vessel compartment. In the comment letter, the coalition argues that EPA's abandonment of its prior practice of quantifying the health benefits of emissions reductions to focus exclusively on the compliance costs to the industry is illegal. The coalition also argues against EPA's new position that it may not consider scientific developments and public health research published since its initial review of updated health risks in 2011. These new approaches will erode federal health protections from toxic air pollution.

"EPA's abandonment of a long-maintained practice of estimating the monetary value of health benefits not only erodes the strength of health protections embedded in future rules, it also puts critical air pollution protections at risk," said Attorney General Bonta. "That means dirty air causing more asthma attacks, cancer, hospital visits, and lives cut short - disregarding the health of our communities in favor of industry profits. We won't stand for EPA's continued anti-science and deregulatory agenda and call on them to revise this illegal proposal immediately."

The proposed rule stems from the EPA's authority under Clean Air Act section 112, which establishes a two-stage regulatory process to develop emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects or adverse environmental effects. The proposed rule covers hazardous air pollutants generated or displaced when liquids that contain hazardous air pollutants are pumped into specialized compartments on tanker ships. Facilities with these kinds of operations include refineries, bulk terminals, chemical plants, and pipeline terminals where crude oil, gasoline, and other fuels or chemicals are loaded. There are five such facilities in California-four in Contra Costa County and one in Los Angeles County.

EPA has a longstanding practice of estimating the health benefits of its rules in terms of dollars as part of a cost-benefit analysis, but the Trump Administration has abandoned that practice in this proposed rule. Instead, the agency only considers the costs of industry regulatory compliance, essentially reducing the value of human life to zero. EPA is also newly taking the position that the Clean Air Act prohibits it from ever reconsidering the risks of emissions, even in the face of updated scientific evidence, after the agency has conducted its initial risk review - which, in this case, was conducted when the rule was last updated in 2011.

In filing this comment letter, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.