Opinion ID: 2804920
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Challenge to the Second Step of the

Text: Designation Process Mississippi also challenges the EPA’s application of the second step of the designation process. The EPA acted arbitrarily, the state argues, in applying the multi-factor test and concluding that DeSoto County contributed to the Shelby County violation. We find no reason to disturb the EPA’s analysis. First, Mississippi challenges the EPA’s differing articulations of the multi-factor test. As pronounced in the 2008 Guidance, the EPA originally conceived of that test as consisting of nine factors. In making the final designations, the EPA applied a five-factor test. See supra § I.B–C, The state argues that the EPA’s “consolidat[ion]” of the test from nine to five factors was arbitrary and capricious. State & County Br. 15. We disagree. At the outset, we do not necessarily agree that the EPA was required to adhere to the 2008 Guidance. The 2008 Guidance did not purport to be a legislative rule, and it explicitly provided that it was “not binding on states, tribes, the public or the EPA.” 2008 Guidance at 4; cf. Catawba Cnty., 571 F.3d at 33–34 (materially similar guidance for PM2.5 38 NAAQS designations did not “create or modify legally binding rights”). But even if we assume that the 2008 Guidance was binding, the EPA did not deviate from it in the final designations. The “consolidation” of the factors was just that—a consolidation. It effected no deletion. During the final designation process, the agency simply grouped several of the 2008 Guidance factors into a single factor, the consideration of which necessarily entailed consideration of the multiple 2008 Guidance factors now residing within it. We find no examples of a final designation that failed to consider a factor identified in the 2008 Guidance. With “no bright line for any of the factors,” and with each factor “weighted considering the unique circumstances of each nonattainment area,” Response to Comments at 61, the consolidation worked no substantive change and thus affords no basis for setting aside the EPA’s analysis. Second, Mississippi challenges the EPA’s specific application of the multi-factor test to DeSoto County. We accord the EPA “extreme deference” in applying that test, and will overturn the EPA’s designations only if the agency applied the test “so erroneously in a particular case that it could not have reasonably concluded that a county was contributing to nearby violations.” Catawba Cnty., 571 F.3d at 40–41. This is not such a case. The agency provided data showing that DeSoto County’s NOx and SO2 (ozone precursors) emissions were the second-highest in the Memphis CBSA. Memphis Area Designations at 8. The county also had the second highest number of workers commuting to counties with violating monitors, the second highest number of vehicle miles traveled in the CBSA, and the highest percentage population growth over the last decade. Those factors led the EPA to conclude that DeSoto County was integrated with Shelby 39 County in a way that indicated ozone contribution. Id. at 9– 10. Additionally, meteorological analysis at the Shelby County monitor showed weather patterns characterized in part by winds blowing in from DeSoto County. Id. at 12. On those bases, the EPA reasonably concluded that DeSoto County contributed to the Shelby County violation. Mississippi principally argues that significant “commerce activity” occurring outside of DeSoto County (including interstate highway traffic, rail and barge transportation, diesel fuel sales, and air traffic) means that other counties contribute to the Shelby County violation more than DeSoto County does—and that, because some of those counties avoided nonattainment designations, DeSoto County should, too. Miss. Dep’t of Envtl. Quality, Air Div., 2008 Ozone Standard Designation Recommendation for DeSoto County, Mississippi 8–12 (Feb. 2012). But the EPA considered that argument and determined in a well-reasoned analysis that the data from Mississippi was only one consideration in the designation process. See Response to Comments at 97; see also Memphis Area Designations 1–31. The EPA concluded that DeSoto County did contribute to Shelby County’s violation in light of the many other factors the agency considered. Memphis Area Designations at 16. Looking at the same data, Mississippi would simply reach a different conclusion. We, however, do not sit to second-guess the EPA’s conclusions in an area identified by the Congress as within the agency’s technical expertise. We only ask if the EPA “considered all relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.” ATK Launch Sys., 669 F.3d at 336 (internal quotation marks omitted). We conclude that it did. 40 With that conclusion, and having considered Mississippi’s other challenges and determined that they lack merit, we deny the state’s petition for review. See Catawba Cnty., 571 F.3d at 52.