Friday, November 15, 2013

Whitman v. American Trucking Assn., Inc. case brief

Whitman v. American Trucking Assn., Inc. case brief summary
531 U.S. 457 (2001)

CASE SYNOPSIS
Several cases arose when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter and ozone. The petition for writ of certiorari to the District of Columbia Circuit was granted, to address the issues of whether EPA could consider costs in setting NAAQS, and whether its interpretation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) relating to implementation of revised ozone NAAQS was permissible.

DISCUSSION

  • The court found that § 109(b)(1) of the CAA, which required the EPA to set air quality standards at a level to protect the public health with an adequate margin of safety, fit comfortably within the scope of discretion permitted by its precedent. 
  • Also, the court affirmed the court of appeal's holding that § 109(b) of the CAA unambiguously barred cost considerations from the NAAQS-setting process. 
  • Further, the court found that the court of appeals had jurisdiction to review the EPA's interpretation of the part of the CAA relating to the implementation of the revised ozone NAAQS, since its implementation policy was a final agency action that was ripe for review. 
  • However, the court remanded the action, since it held that the EPA's implementation policy for nonattainment areas was unlawful. 
  • Whatever effect could be accorded gaps in the section addressing ozone specifically (subpart 2), as implying some limited applicability of the section containing general nonattainment regulations that pertained to every pollutant, they could not be thought to render subpart 2's carefully designed restrictions on EPA discretion utterly nugatory once a new standard had been promulgated.

CONCLUSION

The CAA properly delegated legislative power to the EPA, but the EPA could not consider implementation costs in setting primary and secondary NAAQS. Also, the court of appeals had jurisdiction to review the EPA's interpretation of the part of the CAA relating to the implementation of the revised ozone NAAQS; however, the EPA's interpretation of that part was unreasonable.

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