Opinion ID: 678492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: standard of review

Text: 18 We are mindful that we operate at the busy intersection of three deferential standards of review. In the first place, agency decisions made by informal adjudication may be set aside only if they are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 706(2)(A) (1988); see also Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2866, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983); Sierra Club v. Marsh, 976 F.2d 763, 769 (1st Cir.1992). In the second place, an agency deserves an extra measure of deference with regard to factual questions involving scientific matters in its area of expertise. See, e.g., Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. NRDC, 462 U.S. 87, 103, 103 S.Ct. 2246, 2255, 76 L.Ed.2d 437 (1983); FPC v. Florida Power & Light Co., 404 U.S. 453, 463, 92 S.Ct. 637, 643, 30 L.Ed.2d 600 (1972); Town of Brookline v. Gorsuch, 667 F.2d 215, 219-20 (1st Cir.1981). Mixed questions of law and fact, at least to the extent that they are fact-dominated, fall under this rubric. See Gorsuch, 667 F.2d at 220; cf. In re Howard, 996 F.2d 1320, 1327-28 (1st Cir.1993) (recognizing that appeals in the federal court system are usually arrayed along a degree-of-deference continuum in which deference increases in proportion to the factual component of the determination). And, finally, the respect usually accorded an agency's interpretation of a statute it is charged to execute, see Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 842-45, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-83, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984), is magnified when the agency interprets its own regulations, see, e.g., Arkansas v. Oklahoma, --- U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 112 S.Ct. 1046, 1059-60, 117 L.Ed.2d 239 (1992); Commonwealth of Mass., DPW v. Secretary of Agric., 984 F.2d 514, 524 (1st Cir.1993) (citing cases).