Am. Trucking Ass'n. v. U.S. Envtl. Protection Agency

• Decision Date: 29 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-1440,97-1440
• Citation: 195 F.3d 4
• Parties: (D.C. Cir. 1999) American Trucking Associations, Inc., et al.,Petitioners v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Respondent Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al., Intervenors Consolidated with97-1546, 97-1548, 97-1551, 97-1552, 97-1553, 97-1555,97-1559, 97-1561, 97-1562, 97-1565, 97-1567, 97-1571,97-1573, 97-1574, 97-1576, 97-1578, 97-1579, 97-1582,97-1585, 97-1586, 97-1587, 97-1588, 97-1592, 97-1594,97-1596, 97-1597, 97-1598 97-1441 Filed
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

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195 F.3d 4 (D.C. Cir. 1999) American Trucking Associations, Inc., et al.,Petitioners
v.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Respondent Commonwealth of Massachusetts, et al., Intervenors No. 97-1440 Consolidated with97-1546, 97-1548, 97-1551, 97-1552, 97-1553, 97-1555,97-1559, 97-1561, 97-1562, 97-1565, 97-1567, 97-1571,97-1573, 97-1574, 97-1576, 97-1578, 97-1579, 97-1582,97-1585, 97-1586, 97-1587, 97-1588, 97-1592, 97-1594,97-1596, 97-1597, 97-1598
97-1441 United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Filed October 29, 1999

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BEFORE: Williams, Ginsburg, and Tatel, Circuit Judges.

Opinion per curiam on petitions for rehearing.

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Opinion concurring in partial grant of rehearing and dissenting in part from the panel's denial of rehearing filed by Circuit Judge Tatel.

O R D E R

Per Curiam

This matter is before the court for consideration of respondent Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) petition for panel rehearing in Nos 97-1440 and 97-1441, the responses thereto, and the petitions for panel rehearing of intervenors respondents New Jersey and Massachusetts in Nos. 97-1440 and 97-1441, Citizen for Balanced Transportation, et al. in No. 97-1440, and the American Lung Association in Nos. 97-1440 and 97-1441. Upon consideration of the foregoing, it is

ORDERED that the petitions of EPA, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and the American Lung Association be granted in part. The court accordingly modifies Parts III.A.2 & .3 and the conclusion of the court's original opinion as set forth in the opinion of the court filed herein this date. It is

FURTHER ORDERED that the remainder of EPA, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and the American Lung Association's petitions be denied and that Citizen for Balanced Transportation's petition be denied.

Opinion for the Court filed Per Curiam:

The Environmental Protection Agency petitions for rehearing, challenging this court's holdings that: (1) with respect to the factors the agency uses to determine the degree of public health concern associated with different levels of a pollutant, it "appears to have articulated no 'intelligible principle' to channel its application of these factors; nor is one apparent from the statute," American Trucking Ass'ns v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 175 F.3d 1027, 1034 (D.C. Cir. 1999); (2) "Subpart 2, not Subpart 1, provides the classifications and attainment dates for any areas designated non attainment under a revised primary ozone NAAQS, and the EPA must enforce any revised primary ozone NAAQS under Subpart 2," id. at 1050; and (3) "EPA must consider positive identifiable effects of a pollutant's presence in the ambient air in formulating air quality criteria under 108 and NAAQS under 109," id. at 1052. For the following reasons, we grant the petition for rehearing in part and deny it in part.

I. Delegation

In the EPA's petition for rehearing, counsel for the agency argue that 109 of the Clean Air Act contains the following principle limiting the agency's discretion: "The levels [set in a NAAQS] must be necessary for public health protection: neither more nor less stringent than necessary, but 'requisite.' " EPA Pet. at 8 (emphases in original). Further, counsel claim that in setting the NAAQS at issue in this case the agency applied corollaries of this principle, one for particulate matter, one for ozone,¹ to derive determinate standards.

In denying the EPA's petition for rehearing on this issue, we note that the agency previously put forward neither the assertedly intelligible principle its counsel now claim to find in the statute nor the corollaries its counsel now implicitly derive therefrom. To be sure, in the rulemakings that set the NAAQS, the EPA mentioned the corollary propositions its counsel now claim served as intelligible limiting principles, but the agency did not identify either

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as a limit upon its discretion; the EPA never suggested that it could not (or in a later rulemaking would not) base a NAAQS upon evidence that did not meet the 95 percent confidence level or that revealed adverse but transient effects.² In its briefs defending the NAAQS, the EPA merely asserted that the Clean Air Act provides an intelligible principle; it failed both to state that principle and to argue that its revised NAAQS were promulgated in accordance with that principle. EPA PM Brief at 145-49; EPA Ozone Brief at 77-80. Indeed, the EPA's briefs in each of these two cases contained the same four sentences assuring the court that the statute provides a principle without explaining what the agency understands that principle to be:

[Section] 109(b)(1) requires EPA to promulgate NAAQSbased on air quality criteria issued under 108 that are"requisite to protect the public health" with "an adequatemargin of safety." This language and related legislativehistory provide directions for EPA to follow in settingthe NAAQS. Moreover, EPA has consistently interpret-ed 109(b)(1) to provide further decision making criteriato guide the standard setting process. Thus, the CAA provides a more than sufficient "intelligible principle" to guide EPA's discretion. EPA Ozone Brief at 78; see also EPA PM Brief at 148.

These sentences begged the key question about that intelligible principle: "What is it?"

As we noted in our first opinion in this case, when "statutory language and an existing agency interpretation involve an unconstitutional delegation of power, but an interpretation without the constitutional weakness is or may be available, our response is not to strike down the statute but to give the agency an opportunity to extract a determinate standard on its own." 175 F.3d at 1038. Counsel for the EPA have now extracted from the statute what they contend is an intelligible principle limiting the EPA's discretion. We express no opinion upon the sufficiency of that principle; only after the EPA itself has applied it in setting a NAAQS can we say whether the principle, in practice, fulfills the purposes of the non delegation doctrine. See Yakus v. United States, 321 U.S. 414, 424-26 (1944); Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Connally, 337 F. Supp. 737, 759 (D.D.C. 1971) (Leventhal, J., for three judge panel).

A final word about our non delegation holding: The Supreme Court has long held that an ambiguous principle in a statute delegating power to an agency can gain "meaningful content from the purpose of the Act, its factual background and the statutory context in which [it] appear[s]." American Power & Light Co. v. SEC, 329 U.S. 90, 104 (1946); see also Federal Radio Comm'n v. Nelson Bros. Bond & Mort. Co., 289 U.S. 266, 285 (1933) (upholding delegation to Federal Radio Commission to grant licenses "as public convenience, interest or necessity requires" in light of "its context [and] the nature of radio transmission and reception"); Fahey v. Mallonee, 332 U.S. 245, 250 (1947) (upholding delegation to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to promulgate regulations for the appointment of a conservator for savings and loan associations in view of the banking industry's "well defined practices for the appointment of conservators"). This court has done the same. See, e.g., National Ass'n of Broadcasters v. Copyright Royalty Tribunal, 675 F.2d 367, 376 n. 12 (1982) (finding an intelligible principle to guide the tribunal in disbursing

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cable royalty fees in "specific statements in the legislative history and in the general philosophy of the Act itself"); Amalgamated Meat Cutters, 337 F. Supp. at 747-49 (interpreting the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 in light of "the historic context of government stabilization measures" in order to "negative a conclusion that the whole program was set adrift without a rudder"). To choose among permissible interpretations of an ambiguous principle, of course, is to make a policy decision, and since Chevron it has been clear that "[t]he responsibilities for assessing the wisdom of such policy choices ... are not judicial ones." Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 866 (1984). Accordingly, just as we must defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statutory term, we must defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of a statute containing only an ambiguous principle by which to guide its exercise of delegated authority. But see Kenneth Culp Davis, A New Approach to Delegation, 36 U. Chi. L. Rev. 713, 713 (1969) (arguing that "judicial inquiries [under the non delegation doctrine] should shift from statutory standards to administrative safeguards").In sum, the approach of the Benzene case, in which the Supreme Court itself identified an intelligible principle in an ambiguous statute, has given way to the approach of Chevron. See Industrial Union Dep't v. American Petroleum Inst. (Benzene), 448 U.S. 607, 642, 646 (1980) (Stevens, J., plurality) (interpreting 3(8) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to require "a threshold finding ... that significant risks are present," thereby finding in the statute an intelligible principle).³

II. Subpart 2 and the Revised Ozone Standard

In its petition for rehearing, the EPA challenges the holdings in Parts III.A.2 and III.A.3 of our original opinion, see 175 F.3d at 1048-51, as well as our jurisdiction to reach those issues. We address the jurisdictional point first.

A. Jurisdiction

The EPA argues that because it has taken no final action implementing the revised NAAQS this court lacks jurisdiction to reach the question whether Subpart 2 prevents the agency from implementing a revised ozone NAAQS under Subpart 1.See 42 U.S.C. 7607(b) (limiting this court's jurisdiction to review of "nationally applicable regulations promulgated, or final agency action taken, by the Administrator"); see also Sierra Club v. Thomas, 828...