Opinion ID: 365744
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Procedure on Remand

Text: 2 We explained the procedural history of this case and the design of the Seabrook facility in our earlier opinion, Supra. We will not repeat ourselves. That opinion left the Administrator with several options for correcting his errors. He issued a Response to the Remand Order in the Seabrook Case choosing to hold a new hearing at which the technical experts who had advised him before would testify and be subject to cross-examination. He also decided to allow the parties to introduce evidence not offered at the prior hearings. Though petitioners suggest they may somehow have been injured by the breadth of the remand hearing, they do not argue that these aspects of the procedural order were erroneous. They challenge, however, the Administrator's instructions to his staff: 3 I am directing my Staff not to appear at this hearing as proponents of any particular result, and avoid to the extent possible taking an adversary position in it. The Staff of Region I shall prepare a technical summary and analysis of the evidence submitted . . . . This report shall be non-adversary in nature, but shall contain specific conclusions and recommendations. 4 The hearing was held, and the staff appeared and cross-examined witnesses. The staff replied to proposed findings and conclusions of the applicant Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSCO), an intervenor before us, but did not file proposals of its own. The staff's technical summary and analysis did not make specific conclusions, apparently in part because the staff experts were not unanimous. 5 Petitioners spend a good deal of space arguing that such an order is unprecedented in agency practice. If so, we might be curious why the Administrator issued such a novel order, but we would not, for that reason, have any basis to hold the order illegal. Absent law to the contrary, agencies enjoy wide latitude in fashioning their procedural rules. See Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 543-44, 98 S.Ct. 1197, 55 L.Ed.2d 460 (1978). 1 The only law petitioners cite to support their position that the Administrator is compelled to allow his staff to participate as an adversary is unpersuasive. Office of Communications of United Church of Christ v. FCC, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 112, 425 F.2d 543 (1969), is not on point because it was concerned only with the impact agency neutrality can have on the allocation of the burden of proof. The regulation, 40 C.F.R. § 125.36(a)(1), in which the Administrator defines party to include officers or employees of the Environmental Protection Agency does not answer the question. Petitioners argue, by reference to Black's Law Dictionary, that a party is someone who takes sides 2 and that, therefore, the regulation requires the Agency to take a side. In fact, of course, the word party has a far broader meaning and can refer to anyone concerned or having or taking part in any affair, matter, transaction, or proceeding, to quote again from Black's. One can participate in a proceeding without taking a side. In short, merely labeling the Agency's staff a party tells us nothing about the duties of that party. 6 Finally, petitioners suggest that EPA must take a side to meet its Congressional mandate to protect the environment. Certainly EPA need not always side against applicants for permits to discharge pollutants. The staff was an active participant in the remand hearing, both in building and testing the record. Staff experts offered views on both sides of the issues. The only thing the staff did not do was advocate a particular outcome. The Administrator found that the record would not have been more complete had the staff taken sides. 7 We are not sure how petitioners can show that they are aggrieved by the Agency's neutrality given the significant likelihood that the staff would have chosen, if put to it, to support the Administrator's earlier decision (the substance of which we had not addressed in our opinion). But petitioners have failed to point us to any law requiring EPA's staff not to be neutral. Therefore this challenge fails. 3