2. Supreme Court Upholds EPA Powers, Voids EPA Rule
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled on February 27 that the way the federal government sets clean-air standards is constitutional, rejecting industry arguments that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must balance compliance costs against the health benefits of cleaner air. But the court also ordered the EPA to reconsider the standards it set for ozone in 1997, saying the agency's interpretation of a section of the Clean Air Act was unreasonable.
The ruling, a major boost for the federal Clean Air Act, said the law does not require the government to consider the financial cost of reducing harmful emissions when it sets air-quality standards. The justices also ruled against industry arguments that the EPA took too much lawmaking power from Congress when it set tougher standards for ozone and soot in 1997.
The Clean Air Act "unambiguously bars cost considerations" from the process of setting air-quality standards, "and thus ends the matter for us as well as the EPA," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court. The federal law, "which…we interpret as requiring the EPA to set air quality standards at the level that is 'requisite' -- that is, not lower or higher than is necessary -- to protect the public health with an adequate margin of safety, fits comfortably within the scope of [agency] discretion permitted by" previous Supreme Court decisions on the scope of federal regulatory powers, Scalia wrote.
The law requires the EPA to set national air-quality standards to "protect the public health." The agency is to use criteria that "accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge" for identifying pollution's effects on health. Business groups that long have chafed under the clean-air law argued that the EPA was setting standards without clear criteria and without considering the financial costs of complying with them.
But the government argued that the EPA considers compliance costs in deciding how states will try to meet the clean-air standards, and the law is intended to drive the creation of new technology for doing so.
A federal appeals court had ruled in 1999 that the EPA exceeded its constitutional powers when it adopted new standards in 1997 to reduce smog and soot. The lower court said the government interpreted the federal law so loosely that it usurped Congress' authority.
On the ozone issue, the justices ruled against the EPA's implementation of revised ozone standards in areas whose ozone levels exceed the maximum allowable amount. "We find the EPA's implementation policy to be unlawful," Scalia wrote. "It is left to the EPA to develop a reasonable interpretation" of the ozone standards.
The 1997 air standards limited ozone, a major component of smog, to 0.08 parts per million instead of .12 parts per million under the old requirement. States also were required to limit soot from power plants, cars and other sources to 2.5 microns, or 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
3. EPA Clears New Rule on Diesel Emmissions
Administrator Christie Whitman has directed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) move forward on schedule with its rule to make heavy-duty trucks and buses run cleaner. These vehicles, which will be ready by model year 2007, will cut harmful pollution by 95 percent. Sulfur in diesel fuel must be lowered to enable modern pollution-control technology to be effective on these trucks and buses. The Agency will require a 97 percent reduction in the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel from its current level of 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million.
In announcing this decision on February 28, Whitman said the administration determined that the rule should not be delayed in order to protect public health and the environment. Once fully implemented, the rule will eliminate 2.6 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions each year. Soot or particulate matter will be reduced by 110,000 tons a year.
An estimated 8,300 premature deaths, 5,500 cases of chronic bronchitis and 17,600 cases of acute bronchitis in children will also be prevented annually, according to the EPA. It is also estimated to help avoid more than 360,000 asthma attacks and 386,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children every year. In addition, 1.5 million lost work days, 7,100 hospital visits and 2,400 emergency room visits for asthma will be prevented.
