Opinion ID: 3180012
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Clean Air Act’s Visibility Protections

Text: In enacting Section 169A2 Congress “declare[d] as a national goal the prevention of any future, and the remedying of any existing, impairment of visibility in mandatory class I Federal areas which impairment results from manmade air pollution.” § 7491(a)(1). “Class I” Federal areas include certain national wilderness areas and national parks. Arizona contains twelve Class I areas, the largest of which is Grand Canyon National Park. Section 169A seeks to reduce “regional haze,” that is, “visibility impairment caused by geographically dispersed sources emitting fine particles and their precursors into the air.” Am. Corn Growers, 291 F.3d at 3 (internal quotation marks omitted). In service of this goal, Section 169A requires that certain sources contributing to visibility impairment install BART—which, again, is an acronym for “best available retrofit technology.”3 States must review all major stationary emissions sources built between 1962 and 1977 to determine whether the source “emits any air pollutant 2 We use “Section 169A” to refer generically to the visibility amendments, but use the codified version, 42 U.S.C. § 7491, for specific citations. 3 We apologize for the extensive use of acronyms in this opinion and include a brief glossary at the end to aid the reader. Environmental litigation is awash in such alphabetical shorthand, and the “insiders” would not know what we meant if we used other terms. We have therefore decided against expanding the Federal Reporter 3d (F.3d, of course, another shorthand) by stubbornly spelling out each term. 8 ARIZONA EX REL. DARWIN V. USEPA which may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to any impairment of visibility in” any Class I area. § 7491(b)(2)(A). The states are then responsible for determining the appropriate BART controls for each source. See 42 U.S.C. § 7491(b)(2)(A), (g)(2). EPA reviews the states’ SIP submissions, if any, for consistency with the statute and regulations. See 42 U.S.C. § 7410(c)(1)(A); Oklahoma v. EPA, 723 F.3d 1201, 1204 (10th Cir. 2013). If EPA determines that a SIP does not meet the Act’s requirements, the federal agency may itself determine BART and impose a FIP. See 42 U.S.C. § 7491(b)(2)(A). More specifically, if EPA finds that a state has not submitted a required SIP, determines that a submitted SIP is incomplete, or disapproves a SIP in whole or in part, it “shall promulgate a [FIP] at any time within 2 years.” 42 U.S.C. § 7410(c)(1). EPA must promulgate a FIP “unless the State corrects the deficiency, and [EPA] approves the plan or plan revision, before [EPA] promulgates [the FIP].” Id. When determining BART, states or EPA must consider five factors: “[1] the costs of compliance, [2] the energy and nonair quality environmental impacts of compliance, [3] any existing pollution control technology in use at the source, [4] the remaining useful life of the source, and [5] the degree of improvement in visibility which may reasonably be anticipated to result from the use of such technology.” 42 U.S.C. § 7491(g)(2). Each source subject to the BART requirement must install and operate BART “as expeditiously as practicable but in no event later than five years after the date of approval of a [SIP] . . . or the date of promulgation of [a FIP].” 42 U.S.C. §§ 7491(g)(4). ARIZONA EX REL. DARWIN V. USEPA 9