Opinion ID: 4539367
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Intentionality Rationale

Text: EPA argues that the exemption for importers of assembled products with mercury-added components is reasonable because it is consistent with the TSCA’s focus on manufacturers who use mercury intentionally. The TSCA calls on EPA to “identify any manufacturing processes or products that intentionally add mercury” and requires periodic reporting from “any person who manufactures mercury or mercury-added products or otherwise intentionally uses mercury in a manufacturing process.” 15 U.S.C. § 2607(b)(10)(C)(i), (D)(i) (emphases added). EPA infers from that language that Congress intended for it to require reporting only from manufacturers whose use of mercury in their products or processes was deliberate. Because the persons exempted under 40 C.F.R. § 713.7(b)(2) import assembled products of which merely a component contains mercury, EPA views such persons as categorically “unintentional” with respect to the presence of mercury in their products. We are not persuaded. As a practical matter, the Reporting Rule necessarily can generate reports only from individuals or entities who know that their products contain mercury. An importer cannot report information about mercury in its product if it is unaware of that mercury’s existence. So long as the 31 importer knows that its product contains mercury, however, it acts intentionally with respect to the presence of that mercury in its product, and the introduction of that mercury into the United States market. As a categorical matter, an importer of cars with mercury-added lamps in their headlights is no less “intentional” about the presence of mercury in its product than an importer of the lamps themselves: assuming that both importers are aware of the mercury’s presence, the fact that one imports the component on its own and the other imports it within an assembled product is irrelevant to question of their comparative intentionality. And Congress clearly did not intend to exempt importers altogether, given that it specifically defined the term “manufacture” to include “import.” See 15 U.S.C. § 2602(9). Moreover, if EPA were correct that importers described in § 713.7(b)(2) are categorically unintentional and therefore fall outside the universe of persons from whom Congress intended EPA to collect reports, it would follow that EPA lacks statutory authority to require such importers to report. As EPA’s counsel clarified at oral argument, however, that is not EPA’s position. Rather, EPA maintains that it could, if it chose to, require importers of assembled products with mercury-added components to report. Its contention that Congress intended 32 for it to exclude such importers is therefore untenable. To the contrary, Congress’s instruction to EPA to create and publish “an inventory of mercury supply, use, and trade, in the United States,” 15 U.S.C. § 2607(b)(10)(B), evinces its affirmative interest in cataloguing both the nature and extent of mercury use in the United States economy. Congress made clear that it intends EPA to collect and publish information on mercury use in products that are imported, as well as those that are manufactured domestically. See id. § 2602(9). To carry out its obligations under the TSCA, EPA must publish in its inventory information regarding the types and quantities of imported products that contain mercury; it must therefore require reports from all importers of such products, absent an alternative source of information that renders such reporting unnecessary or duplicative. EPA cannot accurately estimate the volume of mercury introduced into the United States market within imported products if it declines to catalogue a potentially significant swath of those products. Furthermore, if EPA does not collect data from all importers of assembled products, its inventory may omit entire categories of imported products that contain mercury-added components, if similar products either are not manufactured in the United States or are manufactured here without the use of 33 mercury. The record before us contains no information regarding the existence or non-existence of any such categories of product. But that is exactly the point: without a reporting requirement, one can only speculate about how significant or insignificant the potential omissions may be. There is no reasonable basis for EPA to conclude either that Congress did not care about imported assembled products with mercury-added components, or that the quantity of such products or the amount of mercury they contain is de minimis.