Opinion ID: 526733
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bias in the Commission's Cost-Benefit Analysis

Text: 31 Petitioner also argues that the Commission's rule is facially invalid because, in cases where cost-benefit analysis is permitted, the rule maximizes cost considerations at the expense of safety and is therefore impermissibly biased against backfitting. Because this contention rests on an erroneous reading of the rule, we hold that it is without merit. 32 Petitioner maintains, and there is no dispute, that Congress intended public safety to be a paramount concern of the Commission, see UCS I, 824 F.2d at 114-18, and that the Act does not permit the Commission to establish a cost-benefit formula that is inherently weighted against desirable safety improvements. Petitioner claims, however, that the rule fails to list certain benefits of imposing backfits--such as the large benefit associated with avoidance of an accident--even though it lists many costs of a backfit, including such allegedly trivial costs as the cost of Commission resource expenditures. But this contention, while true, ignores the fact that the regulation on its face also provides that the elements of the cost-benefit analysis are not limited by the enumerated factors, but rather are to include any other information relevant and material to the proposed backfit, 10 C.F.R. Sec. 50.109(c). Moreover, the chief benefit listed in the rule, the [p]otential change in the risk to the public from the accidental off-site release of radioactive material, Sec. 50.109(c)(3), is sufficiently broad to encompass most, if not all, of petitioner's concerns. 33 Petitioner's argument is therefore grounded on a flawed reading of the relevant regulation. Not every conceivable cost or benefit is intended to be identified by the rule, and the rule explicitly states that the factors listed in section 50.109(c) are neither mandatory nor exhaustive. Accordingly, we reject petitioner's argument that the revised rule is, as a matter of law, unlawfully biased.