Opinion ID: 2685304
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Regulation of Four Corners Power Plant

Text: The Plant is a coal-fired power plant located on the Navajo Reservation near Farmington, New Mexico. It is privately owned by Arizona Public Service Company (APS) and several other utilities. APS serves as the Plant operator. At the time of the rulemaking, the Plant consisted of five units; Units 1 and 2 were each rated to a capacity of 170 mega-watts (MW), Unit 3 was rated to a capacity of 220 MW, and Units 4 and 5 were each rated to a capacity of 750 MW. In 1977 Congress amended the Clean Air Act to authorize the EPA to regulate regional haze to remedy “any existing[] impairment of visibility in mandatory class I Federal areas which impairment results from manmade air pollution.” 42 U.S.C. § 7491(a)(1); see id. § 7491(a)(4),(b). Federal Class I areas are international parks, national wilderness areas, national memorial parks, and national parks that exceed a certain size. See id. § 7472. The regional-haze program has “goals and standards [that] are purely aesthetic rather than directly related to health and safety.” Oklahoma v. U.S. EPA, 723 F.3d 1201, 1226 (10th Cir. 2013) (Kelly, J. concurring in part and dissenting in part); Henry N. Butler & Nathaniel J. Harris, Sue, Settle, and Shut Out the States: Destroying the Environmental Benefits of Cooperative Federalism, 37 Harv. J.L. & Pub. 3 Pol’y 579, 603 (2014) (“The [regional haze provisions] are designed to improve visibility in national parks and wilderness areas by decreasing pollution—a purely aesthetic goal unrelated to health.”). The process for regulating haze resembles that for regulating air pollutants for which the EPA has set national ambient-air-quality standards (NAAQS) under 42 U.S.C. §§ 7408 and 7409.2 Once a standard has been established for a pollutant, each state is responsible for developing a state implementation plan (SIP) to meet the standard by means such as setting emission limits for power plants and other stationary sources of pollution. See id. § 7410. The SIP must be approved by the EPA; and if a state fails to submit a SIP, or if it fails to remedy a deficient SIP, the EPA is required to promulgate a FIP within two years. See id. § 7410(c). For haze reduction the EPA does not set NAAQS, but it must (1) promulgate a list of Class I areas that are designated visibility areas based on a determination by the Secretary of the Interior that each area is one “where visibility is an important value of the area,” id. § 7491(a)(2); and (2) promulgate regulations to assure “reasonable progress” toward the national goal of visibility in Class I areas, id. § 7491(a)(4). States whose emissions may contribute to visibility impairment in designated visibility areas must issue SIPs that require operating stationary sources emitting air pollutants that can 2 There are now NAAQS for six pollutants: sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead. See Util. Air Regulatory Grp. v. EPA, Nos. 12-1146, 12-1248, 12-1254, 12-1268, 12-1269, 12-1271, 2014 WL 2807314, at  (U.S. June 23, 2014). 4 contribute to visibility impairment to “procure, install, and operate, as expeditiously as practicable (and maintain thereafter) the best available retrofit technology [(BART)]” to reduce such emissions. Id. § 7491(b)(2)(A). The EPA must examine five factors when determining what is the BART: [1] the costs of compliance, [2] the energy and nonair quality environmental impacts of compliance, [3] any existing pollution control technology in use at the source, [4] the remaining useful life of the source, and [5] the degree of improvement in visibility which may reasonably be anticipated to result from the use of such [BART]. Id. § 7491(g)(2). Section 7491 does not, however, govern chemicals listed as “hazardous air pollutants” under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7412(b). Section 112, under which the EPA sets emission standards for source polluters that emit hazardous air pollutants, states, “The provisions of [the regional-haze program] shall not apply to pollutants listed under this section.” Id. § 7412(b)(6). Both mercury and selenium compounds are listed as hazardous pollutants. See id. § 7412(b)(1). In the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, Congress declared that in some situations Indian tribes should be treated as states for purposes of the Act. See id. § 7601(d). Congress left it to the EPA to specify the provisions of the Act “for which it is appropriate to treat Indian Tribes as States” and authorized the EPA to “promulgate regulations which establish the elements of tribal implementation plans [(TIPs)].” Id. § 7601(d)(2)‒(3). Congress also provided that the EPA could at times directly administer regulations under a FIP on tribal land, similar to its power to issue a FIP if a state does not submit an acceptable SIP. See id. § 7601(d)(4). The EPA promulgated the Tribal 5 Authority Rule under these provisions in 1998. See 40 C.F.R. pt. 49 (2013). The rule generally “authorize[s] eligible tribes to have the same rights and responsibilities as States.” Id. § 49.1. But recognizing that tribes would need more time than states to investigate and submit TIPs, the EPA eliminated several time requirements for TIPs, including the deadline for submitting specific visibility implementation plans. See id. § 49.4(e). It also determined that it could issue FIPs when “necessary or appropriate to protect air quality . . . if a tribe does not submit a [proper TIP].” Id. § 49.11. Because the Plant is on the Navajo Reservation, it is not regulated by any New Mexico SIP. And the Navajo Nation has never submitted a TIP that would regulate the Plant under the Clean Air Act. In 2007 the EPA issued the first FIP to cover the Plant, which set emissions limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and an opacity limit on various emissions. In 2009 the EPA began the rulemaking process to issue a FIP to apply regional-haze regulations to the Plant. The Plant is within 300 km of 16 Class I areas, including the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Arches National Park.3 The air quality and visibility are impaired in each of the 16 areas. See Proposed FIP, 75 Fed. Reg. at 64224.