Title: Commonwealth Edison Co. v. PCB
Citation: 343 N.E.2d 459, 62 Ill. 2d 494
Docket Number: 47352
State: Illinois
Issuer: Illinois Supreme Court
Date: January 20, 1976

62 Ill. 2d 494 (1976)
343 N.E.2d 459
COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY, Appellee,
v.
THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, Appellant.
Docket No. 47352.

Supreme Court of Illinois.
Opinion filed January 20, 1976.
Rehearing denied March 25, 1976.
*495 William J. Scott, Attorney General, of Springfield (George William Wolff, Assistant Attorney General, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellant.
Richard E. Powell, Gerald D. Mindell, and Eugene H. Bernstein, of Chicago (Isham, Lincoln &amp; Beale, of counsel), for appellee.
Wallace H. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General, and Edmund B. Clark and Larry G. Gutterridge, of the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Robert B. Schaefer, Regional Counsel, Dorothy Attermeyer, Assistant Regional Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region V, of Chicago, and John Bonjne and Jerome Ostrov, of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., of counsel), for amicus curiae United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Thomas Arthur, of Chicago (Daniel Swartzman, of counsel), for amicus curiae Chicago Lung Association.
Docket No. 47352. Agenda 38. September, 1975.
MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH delivered the opinion of the court:
On April 13, 1972, under its docket No. R 71-23, the Illinois Pollution Control Board (hereafter the Board) filed an opinion and order adopting chapter 2 of its rules and regulations. Chapter 2 was divided into eight parts and contained both new rules and previously adopted rules which had been renumbered and reclassified. Commonwealth *496 Edison Company (hereafter Edison) was a party to the hearings held prior to adoption of the rules classified under parts I, II and III of chapter 2 (I  General Provisions; II  Emission Standards and Limitations for Stationary Sources; III  Air Quality Standards). Pursuant to sections 29 and 41 of the Environmental Protection Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 111 1/2, pars. 1029, 1041) Edison filed a petition in the appellate court seeking review of Rules 103(a)(5)(b), 103(b)(6)(A), 103(e), 103(i), 104, 105, 111, 202(b), 202(e), 203(g), 203(i), 204(c), 204(h), and 303 of chapter 2. The appellate court affirmed the adoption of Rule 103(e)(1); held Rule 303 to be void; and reversed the adoption of Rules 203(g)(1) and 204(a)(1) and (c)(1)(A) and remanded with directions. (25 Ill. App.3d 271.) We granted the Board's petition for leave to appeal.
This appeal is concerned only with the validity of Rules 203(g)(1), 204(a)(1), 204(c)(1)(A) and 303. Although the Board and Edison have briefed and argued a number of points, their contentions will be reviewed only to the extent necessary to the decision of this case. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Chicago Lung Association, pursuant to leave granted, have filed briefs as amici curiae.
We consider first the contentions of the parties concerning Rule 303, which provided:
In its opinion filed at the time of adopting chapter 2 the Board stated:
The appellate court stated: "To imply that the [Environmental Protection] Agency shall have the discretion to deny the application where the proposed facility would meet the requirements of the Act or regulations although lower the ambient-air quality essentially authorizes the Agency to create a new ambient-air-quality standard. Since it cannot be disputed that section 5(b) [of the Environmental Protection Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1005(b)] clearly authorizes the Board to create such standards, the rule must be viewed as an attempt by the Board to delegate that duty to the Agency." (25 Ill. App.3d 271, 279.) The court held that there was no legislative intent that the Board redelegate its authority to the Agency, that it was not empowered to do so, and that Rule 303 was void.
We do not agree that in adopting Rule 303 the Board delegated to the Agency its authority to establish ambient air quality standards. Ambient air quality standards were established in Board Rules 301, 302, and 304 through 312 of chapter 2, and Rule 303 does not purport to delegate to the Agency the authority to establish standards. The provision that if the existing ambient air quality was higher than that established by the Board's rules and regulations, the higher quality was to be maintained unless lowering it was justified by "necessary economic and social development and will not interfere with or become injurious to human health or welfare" was a directive to the Agency and did not serve to delegate to the Agency the authority *498 to set standards. In holding as it did, the appellate court erred, and that portion of its judgment must be reversed.
We consider next the contentions with respect to Rules 203(g)(1), 204(a)(1) and 204(c)(1)(A). These rules are contained in the opinion of the appellate court (25 Ill. App.3d at 282-285) and need not be repeated verbatim here. Rule 203(g)(1) established particulate emission standards and limitations for fuel combustion emission sources using solid fuel exclusively. Rule 204(a)(1) established sulfur dioxide emission standards and limitations for new fuel combustion emission sources with actual heat input greater than 250 million BTU per hour using solid fuel exclusively, and Rule 204(c)(1)(A) established sulfur dioxide emission standards and limitations for existing fuel combustion sources located in the Chicago, St. Louis (Illinois) and Peoria major metropolitan areas using solid fuel exclusively. The order provided that Rule 204(c)(1)(A) was to become effective May 30, 1975.
The record shows that 83% of the fuel used to fire Edison's generating units was coal. These coal-fired units were designed for use with Illinois coal, which has a sulfur content of about 3.5% and a heating value of about 10,500 BTU. To comply with the sulfur dioxide emission limit in Rule 204(c)(1)(A), Edison would be required to use coal with a sulfur content of about 0.9%; and compliance with the sulfur dioxide emission limit in Rule 204(a)(1) of 1.2 pounds per million BTU for new coal-fired generating units would require it to use coal with a sulfur content of about 0.6%. Electrostatic precipitators which control particulate emissions, and which have been installed on most of Edison's coal-fired generators at a cost of $40,000,000, will comply with the 0.2 pound per million BTU particulate limit in Rule 203(g)(1), if Edison continues to burn the Illinois coal; but if low sulfur coal is used, these precipitators lose efficiency, and Edison would violate Rule 203(g)(1). It would take eight years to install new precipitators or rebuild existing precipitators for use with *499 low sulfur coal without interrupting service.
Omitting their many facts and figures, Edison's basic arguments may be summarized as follows:
Section 27 of the Environmental Protection Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1027) provides that the Board, in promulgating regulations under the Act, shall take into account, among other things, "the technical feasibility and economic reasonableness of measuring or reducing the particular type of pollution." The appellate court held that the record failed to show that the Board took into account the technical feasibility and economic reasonableness of a simultaneous compliance with Rules 203(g)(1) and 204. (25 Ill. App.3d 271, 287-88.) In remanding the cause to the Board for further consideration of these rules, that court stated:
The Board contends that the appellate court erred in holding that it had not, prior to the adoption of Rules 203 and 204, considered their economic reasonableness and technical feasibility. It is Edison's position that the evidence shows conclusively that it cannot in the foreseeable future comply with Rules 203 and 204 without shutting down many of its generating units resulting in "vast interruptions of service"; that because of technological deficiencies and the unavailability of reliable sulfur-removal equipment it is not possible to comply with the rules and that "The costs which would be imposed upon Edison and its customers in attempting to comply with Rules 203(g)(1) and 204 simultaneously are unreasonable in view of the minimal impact, if any, which compliance would have on ambient air quality."
Amicus United States Environmental Protection Agency argues that sections 27 and 5(c) of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, and the Federal Clean Air Act of 1970 (42 U.S.C. § 1857 et seq. (1970)), authorized the Board to "promulgate standards adequate to attain federal goals" and that "The Board's interpretation of `technology forcing' as foreseen in the Clean Air Act, is correct."
On March 7, 1974, approximately 9 months prior to the filing of the opinion of the appellate court, the Board, under its Docket No. R 74-2 adopted the following order:
On January 9, 1975, as a result of these "inquiry hearings," a member of the Board proposed an amendment to Rule 204 which, subject to certain conditions, would exempt existing stationary sources from the numerical limitations of paragraphs (c), (d) and (e). In the statement of need attached to the proposed amendment the Board member said:
By letter dated March 26, 1975, the Director of the Agency proposed amendments to Rule 204. The Board assigned the Agency proposal Docket No. R 75-5 and consolidated it with No. 74-2 for additional hearings. Edison stated in its brief that extensive additional hearings, then in progress on these two proposed amendments to Rule 204, should provide an adequate basis to evaluate the Rule. We note, however, from Environmental Register No. 112 of the Board, dated November 3, 1975, that "On a motion made by the Environmental Protection Agency, the consolidated hearings on R 74-2 and R 75-5, (amendments to the sulfur dioxide regulations), have been continued until further notice."
In addition to the proposed amendments to Rule 204 and the hearings thereon, Public Act 79-1099, effective September 26, 1975, added paragraph (r) to section 3 and *503 paragraph (h) to section 10 of the Environmental Protection Act. These paragraphs provide:
In view of the Board's order of March 7, 1974, directing new inquiry hearings on the precise issues we are here asked to consider, the extensive hearings that have been held and the "wealth of new information" that has been gathered in those hearings, and the recent legislation authorizing the use of intermittent control systems until December 31, 1985, under conditions prescribed by the Board in lieu of compliance with sulfur dioxide emission standards, we decline to determine the validity of Rules 203(g)(1), 204(a)(1) and 204(c)(1)(A) on the basis of evidence adduced at hearings held in 1970, 1971, and 1972 and the Board's opinion of April 13, 1972.
It does not appear that any enforcement proceedings have been instituted against Edison based on these rules in their present form, and the Board has granted Edison conditional variances from simultaneous compliance with the Rules. (See PCB 74-16, January 3, 1975.) Under these circumstances, the judgment of the appellate court reversing *504 the Board's adoption of Rules 203(g)(1) and 204(a)(1) and (c)(1)(A) is affirmed.
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the appellate court holding Rule 303 invalid is reversed, and its judgment reversing the adoption of Rules 203(g)(1) and 204(a)(1) and (c)(1)(A) and remanding for further consideration is affirmed.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
MR. JUSTICE CREBS took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.