Opinion ID: 626372
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The EPA’s Reliance on Texas Law

Text: It is beyond cavil that the EPA may consider only the requirements of the CAA when reviewing SIP submissions. The Act provides that the EPA “shall approve [a SIP] submittal as a whole if it meets all of the applicable requirements of [the Act].” 42 U.S.C. § 7410(k)(3). This statutory imperative leaves the agency no discretion to do anything other than ensure that a state’s submission meets the CAA’s requirements and, if it does, approve it before the passage of its statutory deadline. Moreover, the provisions of the Act that govern minor NSR and the EPA’s review of SIP revisions make no allowance for the EPA to evaluate the submission for compliance with state law. See § 7410(a)(2)(C) (the Act’s only requirement for minor NSR is that each SIP “include . . . regulation of the modification and construction of any stationary source within the areas covered by the plan as necessary to assure that [NAAQS] are achieved”); § 7410(l) (the EPA may disapprove a SIP revision only if “the revision would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment” of the NAAQS “or any other applicable requirement of [the Act]”). As the EPA itself has recognized, nowhere does the Act authorize EPA review of SIP revisions for conformity with state law: “Section [7410(l)] requires us to evaluate proposed SIP revisions in relation to applicable requirements of the CAA, not state rules.” 73 Fed. Reg. 60,957, 60,961 (Oct. 15, 2008) (emphasis in original) (approving a revision to Alabama’s SIP). In this case, the EPA overstepped the bounds of its narrow statutory role in the SIP approval process. As mentioned, on five separate occasions the EPA gave as its reason for disapproving the PCP Standard Permit that it “does not meet the requirements of the Texas Minor NSR Standard Permits SIP.” 75 Fed. Reg. 56,424, 56,445 (Sept. 15, 2010) (emphasis added). This attempt by the EPA to enforce state law standards was ultra vires. It was “in excess of statutory . . . authority,” in contravention of 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(C). In addition, because state 11 No. 10-60891 law is a “factor[] which Congress has not intended [the EPA] to consider,” the EPA’s reliance on it was arbitrary and capricious. State Farm, 463 U.S. at 43. The EPA now attempts to discount its repeated invocation of state law standards by pointing to its passing assertions in its final rule that the “EPA is disapproving the [PCP Standard Permit] because it does not meet the requirements of the CAA,” 75 Fed. Reg. at 56,424, and that the “EPA reviews a SIP revision submission for its compliance with the Act and EPA regulations.” Id. at 56,447. This will not do, however, because these bald assertions are belied by the entirety of the EPA’s discussion of the PCP Standard Permit. Nowhere in either the proposed or final disapproval does the EPA explain how the PCP Standard Permit is inconsistent with any particular provision of the Act. In addition to the EPA’s five unambiguous statements that it relied on Texas law, a holistic review of the EPA’s analysis demonstrates that it evaluated the PCP Standard Permit for compliance with the features of Texas’s SIP-approved standard permits program, not the requirements of the CAA. See, e.g., id. at 56,445 (discussing at length the ways in which the PCP Standard permit purportedly “does not meet the requirements of” Texas’s standard permits program). The EPA impermissibly treated Texas’s standard permits program as if it were the applicable legal standard.6