Opinion ID: 2821421
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The USDA’s 2003 Change in Policy

Text: Without acknowledging that the factual findings in the 2003 Record of Decision (ROD) rest on different policy views than those in the 2001 ROD, the majority argues that “[t]he Tongass Exemption thus plainly ‘rests upon factual findings that contradict those which underlay [the agency’s] prior policy.’” This conclusion is simply incorrect. The agency, following the policy instructions of the new president, weighed some of the facts in the existing record differently than had the previous administration, and emphasized other facts in the record that the previous administration had not. Stated differently, the two administrations looked at some of the same facts, and reached different conclusions about the meaning of what they saw. The second administration simply concluded that the facts called for different regulations than those proposed by the previous administration. There is little dispute that the underlying facts analyzed by the USDA had not changed meaningfully between November 2000, when the USDA completed the original rule’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), and 2003. The USDA acknowledged as much when it considered the environmental impact of the Tongass Exemption in 2003. It concluded that “the identified new information and changed circumstances do not result in significantly different environmental effects from those described in the roadless rule FEIS. Such differences as may exist are not of a scale or intensity to be relevant to the adoption of this final rule or to support selection of another alternative from the roadless rule FEIS. Consequently, the overall decisionmaking picture is not substantially different from what it was in November ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KAKE V. USDA 55 2000, when the roadless rule FEIS was completed.” 68 Fed. Reg. at 75,141. Nor had the facts underlying the USDA’s assessment of the socioeconomic impact of the Tongass Exemption changed meaningfully by 2003; the USDA simply prioritized different aspects of the same socioeconomic data that it had considered in 2000. In the original Roadless Rule, the USDA had found that “[c]ommunities with significant economic activities in these sectors could be adversely impacted. However, the effects on national social and economic systems are minor. . . . None of the alternatives are likely to have measurable impacts compared to the broader social and economic conditions and trends observable at these scales, however the effects of the alternatives are not distributed evenly across the United States.” 66 Fed. Reg. at 3261. In the 2003 ROD, on the other hand, the USDA assigned greater importance to the adverse socioeconomic impact of the Roadless Rule: “This decision reflects the facts, as displayed in the FEIS for the roadless rule and the FEIS for the 1997 Tongass Forest Plan that roadless values are plentiful in the Tongass and are well protected by the Tongass Forest Plan. The minor risk of the loss of such values is outweighed by the more certain socioeconomic costs of applying the roadless rule’s prohibitions to the Tongass. Imposing those costs on the local communities of Southeast Alaska is unwarranted.” 68 Fed. Reg. at 75,144. In 2003, then, the USDA concluded that it was important to give greater weight to some adverse socioeconomic effects than was done when the original Roadless Rule was promulgated. Given the substantial similarity between the facts the USDA weighed in the 2003 ROD and those it weighed in the 2001 ROD, it is abundantly clear that the differences between 56 ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KAKE V. USDA the two are the result of a shift in policy. After analyzing essentially the same facts, the USDA changed policy course at the direction of the new president, prioritizing some outcomes over others. Fox fully envisions such policy changes. It directs courts to uphold regulations that result from such changes, even if the agency gives an explanation that is of “less than ideal clarity,” as long as “the agency’s path may reasonably be discerned.” Fox, 556 U.S. at 513–14 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). That requirement is clearly met here.