Opinion ID: 383670
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Qualification of Approval by EPA

Text: 24 The teaching of Train is that EPA must approve, without qualification, any SIP or revision that meets § 110 requirements. Bethlehem and U.S. Steel argue that EPA transgressed this rule when it made its approval subject to certain conditions, interpretations, and comments dealing with the need to submit deferred compliance orders and minor significance determinations to EPA for their approval as plan revisions. 25 Under the notice and comment rulemaking process of the APA, agencies as well as the public have a right to comment and respond to comments on proposed agency action. The exercise of this right by an agency does not necessarily constitute the type of qualified approval prohibited by Train. In Train the Supreme Court was addressing a situation where the EPA might disagree with the mix of emission limitations chosen by the state and instead substitute different standards. 421 U.S. at 79, 95 S.Ct. at 1481. Here, the EPA approved Pennsylvania's coke oven emission standards exactly as submitted. In its comments, EPA was merely alerting the Commonwealth to an interpretation of federal law that would affect the state's future actions. The regulations with which the steel companies must comply as a matter of federal and state law were in no way altered by EPA's remarks. Consequently, we conclude that EPA's comments on the operation of the Clean Air Act did not amount to a qualification of its approval of the Pennsylvania SIP revision. 5 Cf. Ohio Environmental Council v. U. S. EPA, 593 F.2d 24 (6th Cir. 1979); Northern Ohio Lung Ass'n v. EPA, 572 F.2d 1143 (6th Cir. 1978) (upholding EPA approvals of SIP revisions where the agency has commented on or attached conditions to the state plan). 26 Petitioners also contend that the EPA based its approval on impermissible criteria when it discussed the practicability of the coke oven emission limitations. In Union Electric Co. v. EPA, 427 U.S. 246, 96 S.Ct. 2518, 49 L.Ed.2d 474 (1979), the Supreme Court held that the Clean Air Act forbids consideration of economic or technological feasibility when reviewing SIPs. U. S. Steel urges that EPA violated this prohibition because in the document explaining its action it considered the necessity for and achievability of the DER regulations. At the same time, however, EPA stressed that it was not basing its approval on the forbidden considerations. Instead, it was merely responding to objections voiced by U.S. Steel during the public notice and comment process. U. S. Steel can hardly complain about the agency's efforts to be fair by thoughtfully addressing its comments.