US v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 19 December 1988
• Docket Number: 4-87-583-E.,Civ. A. No. 4-87-580-E
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Texas

702 F. Supp. 133

UNITED STATES of America v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION.

Civ. A. Nos. 4-87-580-E, 4-87-583-E.

United States District Court, N.D. Texas, Fort Worth Division.

December 19, 1988.

Linda C. Anderson, Daniel S. Goodman, F. Henry Habicht, II, James D. Robertson, Land & Natural Resources Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., Wayne Hughes, Asst. U.S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., Nancy N. Lynch, Asst. Atty. Gen., Environmental Protection Div., Austin, Tex., Michael C. Barra, Asst. Reg. Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Region VI, Dallas, Tex., for plaintiff.

Brett A. Ringle, Robert T. Stewart, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Dallas, Tex. (Jonathan G. Kerr, Law, Snakard & Gambill, P.C., Fort Worth, Tex., William L. Weber, Jr., Patrick J. McCarroll, General Motors Legal Staff, Detroit, Mich., of counsel), for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MAHON, District Judge.

The United States, at the request of the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") brought this action against Defendant General Motors Corporations ("GM") under the Clean Air Act, as amended in 1977, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq. The day after the EPA filed its enforcement action, GM filed an action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. GM sought a declaration that it was in compliance with the Clean Air Act as implemented by the Texas State Implementation Plan ("SIP"). Both actions have been consolidated, and both sides motion for various forms of relief. GM moves the Court for judgment on the pleadings, and the EPA moves the Court to dismiss GM's declaratory judgment action, asserting that it is jurisdictionally barred by the absence of the United States' waiver of sovereign immunity.

Finding GM's motion for judgment on the pleadings meritorious for the reasons set forth below, the Court need not address the merits of the EPA's motion to dismiss. The dismissal of the EPA's enforcement action renders GM's declaratory judgment action moot.

Statement of Facts

General Motors owns and operates an automobile assembly plant in Arlington, Texas. Painting activities at the Arlington plant include the application of paint, such as primer surfacer and topcoat coatings, to General Motors automobiles. The application of primer surfacer and topcoat coatings results in the emission of volatile organic compounds (known as "VOCs") into the air. VOCs may contribute to the formation of ozone. Pursuant to the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401-7626, EPA has promulgated a national standard for the permissible level of ozone in the ambient air.

Congress in the Clean Air Act delegated broad authority to the states to study various manufacturing controls and to designate contaminant emissions rates necessary to attain the ozone national ambient air quality standard. Under the Clean Air Act, the states adopt their desired mix or controls and emissions rates in the form of state implementation plans ("SIPs").¹ Although SIPs and revisions to SIPs are subject to EPA approval, the Clean Air Act limits EPA's review to determining whether the SIP will ensure attainment of the national ambient air standards. If those standards are met, EPA may not modify or reject specific methods of control adopted by the state.²

Pursuant to the authority of the Clean Air Act, Texas promulgated its SIP regulations for VOCs, and EPA approved the relevant portions of the Texas SIP for VOCs in March 1980. One method of control adopted by Texas and approved by EPA in the SIP is a specification of the maximum VOC content of various coatings used in automobile painting operations.³ 31 T.A.C. § 115.191(8). The sole basis for this lawsuit is the EPA's allegation that the General Motors Arlington painting facility uses two primer surfacer coatings and one topcoat coating containing VOCs in excess of the maximum VOC content set forth by the Texas SIP.

The Texas SIP regulations for VOCs specifically grant the Executive Director of the Texas Air Control Board ("TACB") authority to approve, without consent or approval of EPA, substantially equivalent methods of control (known as "alternate methods of control" or "AMOCs") as alternatives to those controls originally set forth in the SIP. 31 T.A.C. § 115.401(a). An AMOC by definition results in substantially equivalent levels of air contaminant emissions and therefore does not affect attainment of national ambient air standards or adversely impact the atmosphere.

As EPA tacitly acknowledged when it approved the AMOC Texas SIP provision for VOCs, the Clean Air Act authorizes the State of Texas to approve AMOCs as part of the State's plan to reach attainment. So long as emissions are substantially equivalent, TACB's exercise of the AMOC provision is mandated by the federally-approved SIP. Although EPA now takes the position that each AMOC must be federally approved as a SIP revision, the unambiguous provisions of the Texas SIP set forth no such requirement.

On October 28, 1985, the Executive Director of TACB issued an AMOC to General Motors for the two primer surfacer coatings and one topcoat coating at the Arlington plant, which are the basis of the EPA's Complaint. This AMOC allows use of higher VOC-content coatings, because they are applied at a higher transfer efficiency through the use of electrostatic rather than conventional application equipment, thereby insuring substantially equivalent VOC emissions.⁴

The requirements of this AMOC now govern the VOC content of General Motors' coatings pursuant to the federally-approved Texas SIP. By adhering to the requirements of this AMOC, General Motors argues that it is in compliance with the Texas SIP and the Clean Air Act.⁵ Even though Texas issued the AMOC, thereby restricting emissions to a level substantially equivalent to that level of emissions which would exist if coatings originally set forth in the Texas SIP could be used, the EPA initiated this lawsuit on the premise that it must expressly approve an AMOC as a SIP revision. This premise is without merit.

Discussion

This Court recognizes that judgment on the pleadings is not generally favored and should not be granted unless the movant demonstrates that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that judgment is proper on the pleadings as a matter of law. See Greenberg v. General Mills Fun Group, Inc., 478 F.2d 254, 256 (5th Cir. 1973); Lambert v. Inryco, 569 F.Supp. 908, 912 (W.D.Okla.1980). When considering a motion for judgment on the pleadings, all well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint are taken as true, and the determination to be made is whether the movant, as a matter of law, is entitled to judgment. See, e.g., Cash v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 580 F.2d 152, 154 (5th Cir. 1978); Roberts v. Northern Trust Co., 550 F.Supp. 729, 729 (N.D.Ill.1982). Facts present in the pleadings and the inferences drawn therefrom must be viewed by the Court in light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil § 1368 (1969). The application of these standards of review to the EPA's complaint and General Motors' answer, evaluated on their merits under controlling case and statutory law, mandate the entry of judgment in GM's favor.

Section 115.401(a) of the Texas SIP provides:

Any person affected by any control requirements of Chapter 115 of this title relating to Volatile Organic Compounds may request the Executive Director to approve alternate methods of control. The Executive Director shall approve such alternate methods of control if it can be demonstrated that such control will be substantially equivalent to the methods of control specified in this regulation.

31 T.A.C. § 115.401(a). As part of the VOC portion of the Texas SIP, the EPA approved section 115.401(a) in the March 25, 1980 Federal Register. 45 Fed.Reg. 19231 (March 25, 1980).

Pursuant to the authority vested in him by section 115.401(a), the Executive Director of the TACB issued to GM an AMOC which permitted the use of higher VOC-content coatings for the two primer surfacer coatings and the one topcoat coating which are the subject matter of the EPA's complaint. Although the basis of the Executive Director's issuance of the AMOC is not in issue in this litigation nor relevant to a determination of GM's motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Court notes that the AMOC was issued because the higher content VOC coatings were applied at an increased transfer efficiency, thereby insuring substantially equivalent VOC emissions. The AMOC simply provided GM with another method of complying with the SIP's limitation of VOCs actually emitted into the air, although a higher VOC-content paint was being used.⁶ Under section 115.401(a), the issuance of an AMOC is mandatory where the emissions under the alternate control procedures are "substantially equivalent" to those specified by SIP regulation.

The EPA's complaint does not allege that the VOCs emitted from GM's coating operations exceed those amounts that would have been emitted from coating operations which used paint with the VOC content specified by section 115.191(8). Such an allegation, of course, would be beside the point, since the VOC content specifications contained in section 115.191(8) have been superceded by the AMOC issued to GM. The EPA's complaint in no respect alleges or implies that GM has failed to comply with the AMOC. Rather, the Plaintiff argues that the AMOC issued to GM is actually a revision of the Texas SIP and such revision can only be implemented with EPA approval. 42 U.S.C. § 7410(i). Under the facts as alleged in the EPA's complaint, and General Motors' answer, viewed in light of the express language contained in 31 T.A.C. § 115.401(a), the EPA's argument cannot be sustained.

In essence, the EPA argues that section 115.401(a), which it expressly approved, does not mean what it says. In support of this specious proposition, the EPA proffers what can only be described, charitably, as a "metaphysical"...