| Abstract |
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has characterized the facilities and companies potentially affected by the proposed New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) by examining existing refineries and the companies that own them. EPA projects that new refineries and processes will be similar to existing ones, and that the companies owning new sources will also be similar to the companies owning existing refineries. EPA has collected data on 150 existing refineries, owned by 58 companies. Of the affected parent companies, 24 are identified as small entities based on the Small Business Administration size standard criteria for NAICS 324110: they employ 1,500 or fewer employees, and they process at most 125,000 barrels per day. EPA estimates that complying with the NSPS would cost the industry approximately $54 million per year (2005 dollars) in the fifth year after proposal. Using these costs, EPA estimates that the NSPS will have very small impacts on the market for motor gasoline. EPA's analytical model projects that complying with the NSPS will increase the price of motor gasoline by less than a penny (0.02%), and will reduce the consumption of motor gasoline by 5.8 million gallons per year (0.004%). Based on sales data obtained for 21 of the 24 small entities, EPA estimates that the costs of complying with the proposed NSPS will not result in significant economic impacts for a substantial number of small entities. The proposed Petroleum Refineries NSPS is considered subject to the requirements of Circular A-4, because EPA estimates that the sum of benefits and costs are approximately $1 billion. |
