Opinion ID: 321656
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interpretation of 118

Text: 3 Section 118 of the Act (42 U.S.C. 1857f) provides: 4 Each department, agency, and instrumentality of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government (1) having jurisdiction over any property or facility, or (2) engaged in any activity resulting, or which may result, in the discharge of air pollutants, shall comply with Federal, State, interstate, and local requirements respecting control and abatement of air pollution to the same extent that any person is subject to such requirements. The President may exempt any emission source of any department, agency, or instrumentality in the executive branch from compliance with such a requirement if he determines it to be in the paramount interest of the United States to do so, except that no exemption may be granted from section 1857c-- 6 of this title, and an exemption from section 1857c-- 7 of this title may be granted only in accordance with section 1857c-- 7(c) of this title. No such exemption shall be granted due to lack of appropriation unless the President shall have specifically requested such appropriation as a part of the budgetary process and the Congress shall have failed to make available such requested appropriation. Any exemption shall be for a period not in excess of one year, but additional exemptions may be granted for periods of not to exceed one year upon the President's making a new determination. The President shall report each January to the Congress all exemptions from the requirements of this section granted during the preceding calendar year, together with his reason for granting each such exemption. 5 The phrase 'shall comply with . . . State . . . requirements respecting control and abatement of air pollution to the same extent that any person is subject to such requirements' effectively conveys a Congressional intent that federal facilities are to be treated equally with private facilities in the scheme of control established by the Act. Recognizing that in particular instances such treatment might prove inconsistent with the national interest, the section provides for executive exemption from any requirement. 6 The scheme of the Act as a whole also supports the conclusion that federal facilities are subject to the Alabama permit requirement. With respect to existing stationary sources of air pollution the Act places the primary responsibility for setting and enforcing emission standards or limitations on the states. EPA, pursuant to 109 of the Act (42 U.S.C. 1857c-4) establishes primary and secondary ambient air quality standards, and the states, pursuant to 110 (42 U.S.C. 1857c-5) establish, subject to approval by EPA, implementation plans geared to meeting the air quality standards. Such implementation plans include, inter alia, 'emission limitations, schedules, and timetables for compliance with such limitations, and such other measures as may be necessary to insure attainment and maintenance' of the air quality standards, provisions 'for establishment and operation of appropriate devices, methods, systems, and procedures necessary to (i) monitor, compile, and analyze data on ambient air quality,' and 'necessary assurances that the State will have adequate personnel, funding, and authority to carry out such implementation plan.' 110(a)(2)(B), (C) & (F). The Alabama permit requirement is a part of the Alabama implementation plan previously approved in accordance with the provisions of 110. Indeed, as inspection of the rule itself indicates, it is not only a part of the implementation plan but appears to be the central mechanism by which the Alabama plan provides for the gathering of information and the enforcement of emission limitations necessary to achieve air quality standards. 7 Sections 111, 112, and 114 (42 U.S.C. 1857c-6, 1857c-7, and 1857c-9) of the Act explicity exempt certain federal facilities from state authority to enforce requirements established by EPA pursuant to those sections. 4 Those sections deal with specialized emission standards for new sources and hazardous pollutants and with recordkeeping, inspection and monitoring requirements established directly by EPA. In view of these explicit exemptions for federal facilities, particularly the exemptions in 111 and 112, which like 110 establish control schemes for certain classes of air pollution sources, the absence of any such exemption in 110 suggests that the provisions of implementation plans adopted and approved pursuant to that section, including provisions for state enforcement of emission limitations through permit systems, are applicable to federal facilities. 8 The general scheme that emerges from the Act as a whole appears to be that responsibility and authority for enforcement with respect to federal facilities are granted to the states for sources with respect to which state implementation plans establish the criteria for enforcement, and is granted to EPA in those instances (i.e., new sources and hazardous pollutants) where EPA establishes the criteria. The scheme is a reasonable one. Because of variations in air quality between states and regions the emissions criteria established under state plans may vary considerably, thus making enforcement by EPA against scattered federal facilities administratively difficult. The new source and hazardous pollutant criteria established by EPA, however, are not tied to air quality standards and may, therefore, vary little or not at all by area, making EPA enforcement against federal facilities more convenient. 9 The Congressional purpose in enacting 118 supports our reading of the Act. The legislative history indicates that Congressional displeasure with the performance of federal facilities under the then existing provisions of the Air Quality Act of 1967 prompted the enactment of 118. In hearings on the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the Senate Public Works Committee found 'many incidents of flagrant violation of air and water pollution standards by Federal facilities;' S.Rep.No. 91-1196, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., at 23 (1970). Additionally the Committee noted, 10 Federal agencies have been notoriously laggard in abating pollution and in requesting appropriations to develop control measures . . .. 11 Id. at 37. See also, H.Rept. No. 91-1146, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., in 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 5360. Section 111 of the prior Act relied primarily on voluntary compliance by federal facilities. In strengthening the Act by replacing that section with present 118 Congress sought to depart from the policy of voluntary compliance and make emission limitations enforceable against federal facilities. With respect to existing sources the Act places upon the states primary responsibility for establishing and enforcing emission limitations, and Alabama, like many other states, relies on a permit system as its method of enforcement as well as a method of generating information concerning emissions. To deny the applicability to federal facilities of that permit requirement would be tantamount to a return to the Congressionally-rejected policy of voluntary compliance by federal facilities. 5 Moreover a holding that 118 does not embrace permit systems would represent a retreat from the provisions of prior 111. That section allowed the Secretary of HEW to establish classes of pollution sources for which federal facilities could be required to obtain a permit from the Secretary. Since 118 does not distinguish between federal and state requirements, holding state permit systems outside the scope of 118 would imply the same conclusion with respect to any federal permit system. The result would be that the Administrator of EPA (who assumed responsibility for air pollution control activities when EPA was established) could not under the stronger 118 do what the Secretary of HEW was explicitly entitled to do under the prior 111. 12 Defendants seek to avoid the impact of 118 by engrafting upon it a substantive procedural overlay. They argue that the phrase 'requirements respecting control and abatement of air pollution' means only requirements such as emission standards and limitations, which they label 'substantive,' and does not include mechanisms, e.g., permit systems, for enforcing these requirements. 6 Having affixed these new labels, defendants would have us infer that while federal agencies must, and will, comply with the 'substantive,' it was not intended that they be bound by the 'procedural,' a term which in defendants' construct is sub-silentio pejorative, impliedly denigrating the Congressionally-mandated mechanisms of enforcement to a status of less dignity and import. This recharacterization of the statutory scheme is a semantical red herring. It draws no sustenance from the Act itself. No such limitation is apparent from the words of 118. Moreover the language of 116 (42 U.S.C. 1857d-1) is inconsistent with defendants' reading of 'requirements.' There Congress used words identical to the 118 'requirements' phrase. 13 Except as otherwise provided . . . nothing in this chapter shall preclude or deny the right of any State or political subdivision thereof to adopt or enforce (1) any standard or limitation respecting emissions of air pollutants or (2) any requirement respecting control or abatement of air pollution . . .. 14 The 'or' in 116 is clearly disjunctive. Therefore, contrary to the position of the defendants, 'requirements' must include more than emission standards or limitations. Finally if 118 did not extend to enforcement mechanisms, it would be difficult to understand why Congress explicitly afforded exemptions from state enforcement in 111 and 112. Both sections provide that if the Administrator finds a state-developed procedure for implementing and enforcing the emission standards and limitations developed by EPA under those sections adequate, 'he shall delegate to such State any authority he has under this chapter to implement and enforce such standards' except with respect to federal facilities. If 118 did not include enforcement mechanisms, there would be no need for these exemptions. 15 In Kentucky v. Ruckelshaus, supra, the Sixth Circuit picked up the defendants' substantive-procedural recharacterization and held that 118 is limited to 'substantive' requirements, a category from which it excluded permit systems. As we read its opinion, that court's conclusions rest on these factors: the ability of states to sue federal facilities under 304 (42 U.S.C. 1857h-2) of the Act; statements contained in the legislative history; and the lack of support in Executive Orders for the contention that 118 includes 'procedural' permit requirements. With deference, we find these factors unconvincing. The inference from 304 is discussed infra at Part III; the legislative history is discussed below in this section of our opinion; and Executive Order No. 11752 is discussed infra at Part IV. 7 16 Defendants' principal attempt to justify their position, and one of the factors relied on by the Sixth Circuit in its decision, consists of what seems to us a strained reading of the Act's legislative history. They rely on the brief summary of 118 contained in the Conference Report, H.Rep.No. 91-1783, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., at 48 (1970), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.New, p. 5381, which reads, 'The House bill and the Senate amendment declared that Federal departments and agencies should comply with applicable standards of air quality and emissions.' Taken in isolation this statement would seem to suggest that 'requirements' means emission limitations, but other factors lead us to assign it little weight. In response to the problem of inadequate compliance by federal facilities with air pollution control measures the House of Representatives passed H.R. 17255 requiring that federal facilities 'comply with applicable Federal, State, interstate, and local emission standards and with the purposes of this Act . . ..' The bill passed by the Senate, S. 4358, however, stated that federal facilities 'shall comply with the requirements of this Act in the same manner as any person must so comply . . ..' As reported by the Conference and as enacted in Public Law 91-604, the final provision requires that federal facilities 'comply with Federal, State, interstate and local requirements respecting control and abatement of air pollution to the same extent that any person is subject to such requirements.' The change from 'emission standards' in H.R. 17255 to 'requirements' in the final version supports the more inclusive view of 118. Given the change in language from 'emission standards' in the House bill to 'requirements' in the final version, the apparent attempt to put federal facilities on the same footing as any other person, the lack of any apparent limitation in the language of 118 itself or any discussion of such a limitation anywhere in the legislative history, and the scheme of the Act as a whole, we be lieve that the Conference Report statement is more accurately read as a statement of the ultimate goal of the provision rather than as a road map of how to get there. No one disputes that the goal of 118 is to assure compliance by federal facilities with air quality and emission standards. The question is rather whether Congress intended that the enforcement mechanisms of federally approved state implementation plans, in this case permit systems, would be used as a method of achieving this goal. And with regard to this question the legislative history, except to the extent that it reveals the Congressional purpose discussed earlier, is ambiguous. 8 Confronted with this ambiguity, we rely on the words of 118, the scheme of the Act as a whole, and what we discern to be the Congressional purpose, as the best guides to interpreting the section. 17 Finally defendants suggest that allowing states to subject federal facilities to the procedural requirements contained in state implementation plans would be unduly burdensome. This argument is substantially undermined by the defendants' contention that even absent subjection to the permit requirement they are bound to, and will, comply with substantive emission limitations, compliance schedules, information gathering and monitoring requirements. Some burden may remain, but under the scheme enacted by Congress determination of whether that burden is undue, and relief if it is, is a matter for executive rather than judicial decision. Section 118 itself authorizes the President to exempt federal facilities from any state requirement 'if he determines it to be in the paramount interest of the United States to do so.' 9