Mr. William D. Ruckelshaus
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C.
20460
Dear Mr. Ruckelshaus:
As you are aware, I have a strong personal interest in
assuring that the activities of the Department of Energy
(DOE) are conducted so as to protect the public health and
safety and to minimize any adverse environmental impacts.
I share your view that environmental standards must have a
sound scientific base and offer the scientific expertise of
this Department to assist the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in assuring the existence of such sound scientific
bases for the regulation of energy facilities.
Your application of risk assessment and the concept of risk |
management to regulatory decisionmaking is particularly
laudable.
Of special interest was your recently
announced risk assessment rationale for controlling sources
of emissions of benzene under section 112 of the Clean Air
Act.
This approach outlined in the EPA Background Paper
dated December 15, 1983 (BNA Environmental Reporter14357~
Deceitber 16,1995) (hereinafter cited as EPA Background Paper)
would limit federal regulation to sources that present a
significant risk to the public health.
This approach seems
inherently reasonable and an appropriate management of
limited federal resources,
DAN.