Posted on April 17, 2012 by John Milner
On February 28 and 29, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral argument in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 et. al., consolidated challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ’s greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations. These regulations are being challenged by a coalition of industry groups and some states (the Coalition). The Coalition argues that the EPA does not have the authority to regulate GHGs from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA)’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting program without Congress amending the law.
The Coalition is asking the Court to vacate EPA’s rules regulating greenhouse gases, including the so-called Tailpipe and Tailoring Rules, on the grounds that they are contrary to the Clean Air Act and deviate from the explicit emission permitting thresholds in the CAA. As Peter Keisler, a lawyer for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) argued, “the agency crossed the line from stationary interpretation to statutory revision” and violated the law by raising the emissions thresholds far above those provided for by Congress in the CAA in order to avoid issuance of an unmanageable number of PSD permits in the short term .
The PSD program applies to new major sources or major modifications at existing sources for pollutants where the area the source is located is in attainment or unclassifiable with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). As Keisler explained to the court, 83% of the GHG emissions from stationary sources would be regulated if EPA addressed greenhouse gas emissions solely in permits for the larger sources already subject to PSD requirements based on their emissions of criteria pollutants.
As Keisler then explained, under EPA’s Tailoring Rule which requires permits based solely on greenhouse gas emissions, 86% of the GHG emissions from stationary sources would be regulated – “a very tiny increment of difference, but a huge difference” in the number of sources that would now be regulated. And this increment of difference between 83% to 86% would translate into stationary sources never before regulated and now required to meet all PSD requirements, including implementation of costly best available control technology (BACT).
A decision by the Court is expected this summer.
Having participated in oral argument preparation and having observed both days of the oral arguments, it is my impression that the NAM arguments against EPA’s Tailoring Rule provide the Coalition with the best chance for victory. NAM’s sound interpretation of the CAA and Congressional intent, coupled with the “avoidance of absurd results” doctrine, would blunt EPA’s quantum leap through the CAA to create non-statutory GHG emission thresholds capturing only an additional 3% of stationary sources that were previously unregulated and would now have to bear crippling air pollution control costs for no real environmental benefit. This is the real absurdity of EPA’s Tailoring Rule that I hope the court’s decision will remedy.
Tags: Clean Air Act, the Coalition, EPA, Tailoring Rule, Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Air | Environmental Protection Agency | Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)