The Clean Air Act allows EPA to consider only public health when setting air quality standards, the high court ruled. Regulators do consider costs when they select pollution control strategies for meeting those standards, a process known as implementation.
Environmental activists hail the decision.
It's also about improving the quality of government decision-making by making sure that government is spending money wisely and where it will do the most good for the most people. That issue remains unsettled by the decision, he asserts. Another industry group will seek legislative changes to the Clean Air Act. The high court's decision also dealt with issues other than cost considerations. It reversed an appeals court determination that, in setting the ozone and particulates standards, EPA overstepped its authority and wandered into lawmaking turf reserved under the Constitution for Congress.