Opinion ID: 216829
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Coast Guard's Supplemental Procedures.

Text: The CEQ regulations are not meant to stand alone but, rather, contemplate that the agencies to which they apply adopt supplemental procedures, if and as needed. Id. § 1507.3(a). The Coast Guard has adopted such supplemental procedures and codified them in Commandant Instruction M16475.1D (Nov. 29, 2000). These supplemental procedures describe thirty-five categorical exclusions (CEs). COMDTINST M16475.1D, fig. 2-1. This compendium includes CEs that cover [r]egulations establishing, disestablishing, or changing Regulated Navigation Areas and security or safety zones and [r]egulations in aid of navigation. Id. fig. 2-1, ¶ 34(g), (i). When promulgating the 2007 Rule, the Coast Guard asserted the applicability of both of these exclusions. 72 Fed.Reg. at 50,058. The Commonwealth does not dispute that the Coast Guard's proposed action fell within the compass of these CEs. But the applicability of a CE does not automatically relieve an agency of the obligation to prepare either an EIS or an EA. The CEQ regulations recognize that even agency actions that are of a kind typically excluded from NEPA review by the operation of a CE may have a significant environmental effect. 40 C.F.R. § 1508.4. In response to that concern, the Coast Guard, like many other agencies, has enumerated in its supplemental procedures various considerations to guide its assessment of whether a particular action, though nominally covered by a CE, involves extraordinary circumstances and, thus, requires the preparation of either an EIS or an EA. COMDTINST M16475.1D, ch. 2, § B.2.b. In effect, this constitutes a list of exceptions to the exclusions. The Coast Guard has identified ten extraordinary circumstances exceptions which, if applicable, may trump a CE and require it to prepare an EIS or an EA. Id. By the same token, the Coast Guard may not rely upon a CE if its proposed action triggers any of the extraordinary circumstances exceptions limned in an incorporated Department of Transportation (DOT) order. Id. The incorporated order requires the preparation of an EIS or an EA for agency actions that are likely to involve any of four additional, albeit overlapping, extraordinary circumstances. Id. encl. 1 (DOT 5610.1C), § 20.b.(2). The Coast Guard attempts to put a new gloss on the extraordinary circumstances described in its NEPA procedures. It claims the right to do so in consequence of its reassignment from the DOT to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which occurred in 2003. This reassignment, the Coast Guard implies, rendered its preexisting NEPA compliance procedures subject to creative interpretation (at least to the extent that they conflict with the DHS's own regulations). [3] Under the guise of this creative interpretation, the Coast Guard rips out the heart of its own exceptions. The Coast Guard cites very little authority for this partial repudiation of its clearly delineated extraordinary circumstances exceptions. In taking this position, it cites cases such as Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452, 461, 117 S.Ct. 905, 137 L.Ed.2d 79 (1997), and claims that it has the authority to interpret its own supplemental procedures. The existence of that power is undeniable, but it cannot be wielded to read a provision in a manner that is utterly contrary to its plain language. Id. (explaining that an agency's interpretation of its own regulations is controlling unless plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation (quoting Robertson, 490 U.S. at 359, 109 S.Ct. 1835)). For purposes of this case, the Coast Guard attempts to nullify plainly stated provisions of its own longstanding NEPA proceduresand judicial deference to agency interpretations cannot be stretched so far. [4] In its March 2006 notice of proposed rulemaking, the Coast Guard explicitly cited Commandant Instruction M16475.1D its own set of procedures, which incorporate the DOT order. It described this matrix as the document that would guide[] the Coast Guard in complying with the [NEPA]. 71 Fed.Reg. 15,649, 15,654 (Mar. 29, 2006). In August of 2007, the Coast Guard reiterated this point when it published the final rule. 72 Fed.Reg. at 50,058. In neither of these notices did the Coast Guard identify any other instructions as applicable to its NEPA compliance. Neither the DHS's regulations nor the Coast Guard's newly minted interpretation of its own procedures were ever mentioned. No incongruity inheres in the Coast Guard's continued use of the incorporated DOT order. Under the CEQ regulations, nothing prevents one agency from incorporating into its supplemental NEPA procedures guidance borrowed from another agency. See 40 C.F.R. § 1507.3. And in any event, even if the incorporated DOT order were somehow set aside, the Coast Guard's professed interpretation of its own procedures itself defies logic and exceeds the bounds of reasonable agency interpretations entitled to deference. The government must turn square corners when dealing with the public, and we think that it is bound by its express reliance on the document that includes the incorporated DOT order and makes no reference to the supposed DHS policy. Cf. NRDC v. EPA, 824 F.2d 1258, 1284-85 (1st Cir.1987) (explaining that agencies must present proposals to the public with sufficiently clear notice so that commenters will have a fair opportunity to express their views). The Coast Guard took the position during the rulemaking process incident to the 2007 Rule that the document that included the incorporated DOT order was part of the regulatory mix. It never provided the public with any hint that either its reassignment to the DHS or the DHS's policies had effected a change in its procedures. Given the Coast Guard's continued reliance on materials predating its reassignment to the DHS, the absence of any explicit disavowal of the incorporated DOT order, and its utter failure to integrate the DHS regulations into its procedures, [5] we hold that the NEPA determination in this case must give full effect to the content of Commandant Instruction M16475.1D.