Supreme Court to Rule on Pollution Laws
Dateline: 02/23/00
The U.S. Supreme Court announced yesterday (5/22/2000) that it would rule on the constitutionality of the national air pollution standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Clean Air Act.
Claiming that compliance with the new EPA regulations would cost over $45 billion, a large group of electric utilities and transportation-related businesses in Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia filed suit in federal court.
Calling for sizable reductions in allowable levels of ozone and allowing the states to regulate the release of air-borne particulates smaller than the width of a human hair, the EPA claimed the new regulations would reduce air pollution by 10 percent over the next decade. The EPA argued that reduced air pollution would result in the saving of lives and billions of dollars in health care costs.
Last year, the U.S. Circuit Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that the EPA had, indeed, illegally assumed legislative powers reserved to Congress by "loosely" interpreting the requirements of the Clean Air Act.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is directed to set pollution limits that "accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on public health or welfare which may be expected from the presence of a pollutant."
In the opinion of the Appeals Court, the EPA "rightly recognizes that the question is one of degree but offers no intelligible principle by which to identify a stopping point."
The Clinton Administration is now appealing the appeals court's decision to the Supreme Court which will consider the case when its new term starts in October. The high court expects to hand down its decision early in 2001.
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Reference Links
Supreme Court to Review Smog Rules
AP/Findlaw, May 22, 2000: "The Supreme Court, stepping into an enormous environmental battle, today agreed to decide the fate of tougher federal regulations for curtailing smog and soot nationwide."
Even as existing air pollution regulations face a Supreme Court test, the EPA is calling for even tougher restrictions on the transportation industry. EPA press release.
Whenever a regulatory agency finds it necessary to publish a "plain English" version of a law, watch out.
The non-plain English version of the law as it officially appears in the US Code. From Cornell Law.
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