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flir Liquide April 18,2017 Samantha Dravis Associate Administrator for Policy Office of Policy United States Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Room 3513A Washington, DC 20460 Re: March 22nd Meeting with Air Liquide S.A. Chairman and CEO Benoit Potier and American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc. Chairman and CEO Michael Graff Dear Associate Administrator Dravis: On behalf of Air Liquide and our over 20,000 U.S. employees, I write to thank you for meeting with Benoit Potier and myself on March 22, 2017. We greatly appreciated your willingness to discuss Air Liquide's work related to technological innovations that help to foster important advances in energy production and reliability, while contributing positively to the environment. We share your commitment to regulatory reform and the need to strike the proper balance between protecting natural resources while providing the regulatory certainty that will allow the private sector to lead the world in innovation. Regarding innovation, Air Liquide has advanced hydrogen use, both as a zero-emission fuel and as an energy storage medium. By leveraging the Nation's abundant supply of natural gas to produce this sustainable and multi-use fuel, the U.S. is positioning itself as a continued leader in the next wave of energy innovation. For example, we have demonstrated our ability to construct hydrogen fueling stations through our collaboration with Toyota, the maker of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Mirai, as well provide eloquent solutions to store and manage energy in support of our Nation's overburdened power grids. At your request, we will soon transmit additional materials to you regarding Air Liquide's work on hydrogen. As you are aware, Air Liquide's American headquarters is based in Houston. We have over 20,000 employees nationwide and operate in every state of the nation to serve over 1 million customers and patients. I'm proud to point out that in just the last 5 years, we have invested close to $17 billion in the U.S., including the acquisition of Airgas and over $3 billion in new plants and facilities. Our commitment to innovation and U.S. investment goes well beyond our operations, ranging from our world-class Research and Technology Center in Delaware to our over 1,200 facilities located throughout the country serving every industry's need for industrial gases, welding and safety products, as well as the medical needs for respiratory and therapeutic gases throughout the 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA - 6/22 Production ED 001523 00007588-00001 country. Although we operate in more than 80 countries worldwide, Air Liquide in the Americas now accounts for more than forty percent of our global revenues and employee population - the great majority of which is U.S. based. Like many domestic manufacturers, we believe that creating a fair and predictable regulatory climate is of utmost importance. Areas that we have discussed relate to rules that stifle innovation and growth due to overly-burdensome requirements or those that could cause an increase in energy costs. We look forward to working with you and your staff to identify and address these issues as they arise. Thank you for offering to introduce Air Liquide to Administrator Pruitt. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with him, and share our views on these and additional areas of Air Liquide's leadership, such as reducing water use in hydraulic fracturing by using nitrogen or carbon dioxide foam-based fluids, reducing carbon emissions from power plants through the use of oxy-combustion technology, and other technological advances developed by Air Liquide in support of energy production and industrial operations to curb environmental impacts. Thank you for your leadership on issues important to the United States and Air Liquide. We look forward to serving as a resource to you and the Administrator as you move forward with your critically important environmental and regulatory policy work. If you have any questions, please contact our Vice President for Public Affairs at Michael.Rosen@airliquide.com or 713 624-8023 or me at any time. Sincerely, Michael J. Graff Chairman and Chief Executive Officer American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc. 17cv1906 Sierra Club v. EPA - 6/22 Production 2 ED 001523 00007588-00002