The Environmental Protection Agency did not fulfill its duties under the
Clean Air Act and violated notice-and-comment procedures, the D.C.
Circuit ruled.
Congress tasked the EPA with identifying sources of hazardous air pollutants and creating regulation standards in 1990.
Section 112(c)(6) amended the Clean Air Act to name seven particularly potent hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs, that required application of strict maximum achievable control technology. With respect to those HAPs, the EPA administrator had until Nov. 15, 1995, to "list categories and subcategories of sources assuring that sources accounting for not less than 90 per centum of the aggregate emissions of each such pollutant are subject to standards under section (d)(2) or (d)(4) of this section."
The EPA was supposed to promulgate the standards by Nov. 15, 2000.
After that deadline passed, the Sierra Club filed suit in 2001. A federal judge repeatedly extended the deadline and ultimately ordered it to comply by Feb. 21, 2011.
In March 2011, the EPA issued a Notice of Determination announcing that "it had met the regulatory obligations imposed on it by § 112(c)(6) of the Clean Air Act."
The Sierra Club petitioned the federal appeals court for review. It said the EPA had improperly issued the determination before circulating it for public comment.
In response, the EPA claimed that the Sierra Club lacked standing and had filed an untimely challenge.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit disagreed last week.
Sierra Club has showed standing by alleging a "redressable concrete interest," in the proximity of its members to sources of the seven HAPs, according to the ruling.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/15/52303.htm
Congress tasked the EPA with identifying sources of hazardous air pollutants and creating regulation standards in 1990.
Section 112(c)(6) amended the Clean Air Act to name seven particularly potent hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs, that required application of strict maximum achievable control technology. With respect to those HAPs, the EPA administrator had until Nov. 15, 1995, to "list categories and subcategories of sources assuring that sources accounting for not less than 90 per centum of the aggregate emissions of each such pollutant are subject to standards under section (d)(2) or (d)(4) of this section."
The EPA was supposed to promulgate the standards by Nov. 15, 2000.
After that deadline passed, the Sierra Club filed suit in 2001. A federal judge repeatedly extended the deadline and ultimately ordered it to comply by Feb. 21, 2011.
In March 2011, the EPA issued a Notice of Determination announcing that "it had met the regulatory obligations imposed on it by § 112(c)(6) of the Clean Air Act."
The Sierra Club petitioned the federal appeals court for review. It said the EPA had improperly issued the determination before circulating it for public comment.
In response, the EPA claimed that the Sierra Club lacked standing and had filed an untimely challenge.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit disagreed last week.
Sierra Club has showed standing by alleging a "redressable concrete interest," in the proximity of its members to sources of the seven HAPs, according to the ruling.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/15/52303.htm
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