Opinion ID: 2804920
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the 2008 ozone designation process

Text: By 2009, all states had submitted their initial designations to the EPA. Rather than immediately reviewing the initial designations, however, the EPA halted the designation process to consider whether to lower the ozone NAAQS even further. This delay prompted a lawsuit by WildEarth Guardians—an environmental-group petitioner in this case—that sought to compel the EPA to complete the stalled ozone NAAQS 11 designation process. 4 The EPA and WildEarth Guardians eventually entered into a consent decree that required the EPA to finalize its designations no later than May 31, 2012. See 2008 Designations Rule, 77 Fed. Reg. at 30,091. The EPA notified the states in September 2011 that it intended to finalize the ozone NAAQS designations by the May 31, 2012 deadline set forth in the consent decree. In accordance with the 2008 Guidance’s instruction to “identify violating areas using the most recent three consecutive years of quality-assured, certified air quality data,” 2008 Guidance at 2, virtually every state had already submitted air-quality data from 2008 to 2010 by the time the EPA resumed the designation process. Although the EPA assured the states that it still planned to consider the recommended designations and ozone data they had submitted initially, it recognized that some states may have collected more recent air-quality data for their regions. For this reason, the EPA allowed the states to provide updated recommendations and analyses—so long as any updated air-quality data was certified for quality—but assured them that they were under no obligation to do so. In response to this invitation, several states updated their initial designations and some submitted air-quality data from 2009 to 2011 to replace their older 2008 to 2010 data. The states seeking to use data from 2009 to 2011 agreed to certify their data for quality by February 29, 2012, so that the EPA had sufficient time to consider the more recent data in advance of its May 31, 2012 deadline to finalize the designations. The EPA then reviewed each state’s initial designations to determine whether to modify them. It first examined the air-quality submissions from the states to determine which 4 See WildEarth Guardians, et al. v. Jackson, No. 2:11-CV-01661 (D. Ariz. filed Aug. 24, 2011). 12 monitors reported ozone NAAQS violations. If a state certified its air-quality data from 2011 by the February 29, 2012 deadline, the EPA generally considered its air-quality data from the years 2009 to 2011. For all other states, the EPA considered air-quality data from 2008 to 2010. After identifying NAAQS-violating monitors, the EPA decided whether to alter the states’ respective recommended nonattainment boundaries. To do so, the EPA used a multi-factor, weight-of-the-evidence test that tracked—but was not identical to—the nine-factor test in the 2008 Guidance. Specifically, the EPA collapsed the 2008 Guidance’s nine-factor test into a five-factor test, which examined (1) “Air Quality Data,” or whether an area’s monitor reported a NAAQS violation; (2) “Emissions Data,” including emissions levels and controls, population, population density, population growth, degree of urbanization and traffic and commuting patterns; (3) “Meteorology,” including wind speed and direction; (4) “Geography/Topography,” which examined the effect of physical land features on the distribution of ozone and (5) “Jurisdictional Boundaries,” which helped determine whether certain areas could effectively carry out air-quality planning and enforcement functions for nonattainment areas. Once attainment designations were made, the EPA notified the states of any proposed modifications it deemed necessary and invited them to submit any additional data or comments they wished to have the EPA consider. Although not required by statute, see 42 U.S.C. § 7407(d)(2)(B), the EPA also opened a 30-day public comment period on the proposed notifications. Several states, organizations and members of the public—including many of the petitioners in this case—submitted comments. The EPA considered the comments and then promulgated its final designations, which identified 48 nonattainment areas in 26 states, the District of 13 Columbia and Indian country. The nonattainment areas included 192 counties in toto and 36 counties in part. The EPA published the majority of its final designations on May 21, 2012, see 2008 Designations Rule, 77 Fed. Reg. at 30,088, and in the case of certain Chicago-area designations, on June 11, 2012, see Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Several Counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin; Corrections to Inadvertent Errors in Prior Designations, 77 Fed. Reg. 34,221, 34,221 (June 11, 2012). After the EPA received and denied 29 petitions for reconsideration, the parties in this consolidated case 5 petitioned this Court for review. We have jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 7607(b)(1). 5 See Del. Dep’t of Natural Res. & Envtl. Control v. EPA, No. 12-1310 (D.C. Cir.); Tex. Pipeline Ass’n v. EPA, No. 12-1312 (D.C. Cir.); Wise Cnty., Tex. v. EPA, No. 12-1313 (D.C. Cir.); Indiana v. EPA, No. 12-1315 (D.C. Cir.); Texas v. EPA, No. 12-1316 (D.C. Cir.); Sierra Club v. EPA, No. 12-1317 (D.C. Cir.); Gas Processors Ass’n v. EPA, No. 12-1318 (D.C. Cir.); Devon Energy Corp. v. EPA, No. 12-1322 (D.C. Cir.); Targa Resources Corp. v. EPA, No. 12-1323 (D.C. Cir.); WildEarth Guardians v. EPA, No. 12-1326 (D.C. Cir.); DeSoto Cnty., Miss. v. EPA, No. 12-1328 (D.C. Cir.); Sierra Club v. EPA, No. 13-1030 (D.C. Cir.); WildEarth Guardians v. EPA, No. 13-1032 (D.C. Cir.); Wise Cnty., Tex. v. EPA, No. 13-1046 (D.C. Cir.); Devon Energy Corp. v. EPA, No. 13-1050 (D.C. Cir.); Tex. Pipeline Ass’n v. EPA, No. 13-1051 (D.C. Cir.); Gas Processors Ass’n v. EPA, No. 13-1052 (D.C. Cir.); Texas v. EPA, No. 13-1053 (D.C. Cir.); Targa Res. Corp. v. EPA, No. 10-1054 (D.C. Cir.). 14