Opinion ID: 587228
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Separation Requirements

Text: 8 In determining the BDT for limiting harmful emissions, the EPA Administrator must tak[e] into consideration the cost of achieving such emission reduction, and any nonair quality health and environmental impact and energy requirements. 42 U.S.C. § 7411(a)(1)(C). Because Congress did not assign the specific weight the Administrator should accord each of these factors, the Administrator is free to exercise his discretion in this area. See Center for Auto Safety v. Peck, 751 F.2d 1336, 1342 (D.C.Cir.1985). We must therefore uphold EPA's decision to abandon the separation requirements if such action is supported on either air or nonair (including economic) grounds. 5 9 Under the CAA, promulgated rules must be accompanied by an explanation of the reasons for any major changes in the promulgated rule from the proposed rule. 42 U.S.C. § 7607(d)(6)(A). 6 The Act also requires the court to sustain the Administrator's actions unless they are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. 42 U.S.C. § 7607(d)(9)(A). The petitioners claim that EPA's decision to omit the proposed materials separation requirement from its final rules was arbitrary and capricious because the decision was not supported by substantial evidence, the Agency failed to explain why certain alternatives were not adopted, it improperly based its finding on the worst case scenario and it improperly relied on the views of the Council rather than its own expertise. We conclude that EPA's failure to promulgate the materials separation provision survives all of these attacks. 10 The petitioners first claim that EPA's explanations for excluding the materials separation requirement are not adequately supported by the administrative record. We will uphold an agency's conclusions if they are supported by such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 477, 71 S.Ct. 456, 459, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951) (quoting Consolidated Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229, 59 S.Ct. 206, 217, 83 L.Ed. 126 (1938)); see also Consolidated Oil & Gas, Inc. v. FERC, 806 F.2d 275, 279 (D.C.Cir.1986). Furthermore, even if the evidence supports both sides of an issue, we will sustain the agency if a reasonable person could come to either conclusion on that evidence. Public Citizen Health Research Group v. Tyson, 796 F.2d 1479, 1485 (D.C.Cir.1986) (citing Consolo v. Federal Maritime Com., 383 U.S. 607, 620, 86 S.Ct. 1018, 1026, 16 L.Ed.2d 131 (1966)). We are particularly deferential when reviewing agency actions involving policy decisions based on uncertain technical information. Id. at 1505 ([A]s long as Congress delegates power to an agency to regulate on the borders of the unknown, courts cannot interfere with reasonable interpretations of equivocal evidence.). 11 The petitioners attack the sufficiency of the evidence supporting EPA's conclusions regarding both air and nonair benefits. On the issue of air-related benefits, EPA's proposed rules noted that, due to the substantial reductions achieved by air pollution control devices, it was unable to reliably quantify the emission reductions attributable to materials separation. 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,240; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,281. At the time it proposed the rules, however, EPA concluded: It is simply common sense, and the Agency's expectation, that reductions in the amount of pollution-generating materials combusted in an MWC will reduce the amount of pollutants in its air emissions. 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,240; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,281. When it omitted the separation requirements from its final rules, EPA concluded that emissions reductions resulting from materials separation were not only difficult to quantify but were in fact relatively small. 56 Fed.Reg. 5488, 5496 (1991) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. §§ 51, 52 and 60); 56 Fed.Reg. 5514, 5521 (1991) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. § 60). This conclusion has adequate support in the record. See Emission Standards Division, Division of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Envtl. Protection Agency, Pub. No. EPA-450/3-90-021, Municipal Waste Combustion: Background Information for Materials Separation 5-15 to 5-16 (1991) (describing tests examining emissions from unseparated versus separated waste and concluding that efficacy of existing antipollution devices results in small emissions reduction from waste separation). 12 The petitioners next challenge whether EPA's conclusions regarding nonair benefits are adequately supported in the record. Both the proposed rules and the final rules note that requiring separation and recycling could lead to either a cost benefit or a cost detriment. See 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,242; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,283-84; 56 Fed.Reg. at 5497. While EPA initially forecast a likely benefit, 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,243, in promulgating its final rules it determined that the record was too inconclusive to justify a materials separation rule, 56 Fed.Reg. at 5497. We must therefore determine whether EPA adequately supported its change in position. The preamble to the final rules recites that the Agency, based in part on its own analysis, agreed with those comments suggesting that the uncertainty over costs associated with separation and recycling might be even greater than EPA had originally believed. See, e.g., Comments of The U.S. Conference of Mayors National Resource Recovery Association, JA 342 (We estimate that, depending on the technology/program mix, total program costs are likely to range from $100 to more than $200 per ton of recycled product, including collecting, processing, and marketing the material). We conclude that these comments, on which the Agency expressly relied to confirm its own views on cost uncertainty, see 56 Fed.Reg. at 5497, provide sufficient evidence to support its changed view. 7 13 The petitioners next claim that EPA arbitrarily and capriciously deleted the materials separation requirement because of its uncertainty whether sales of recycled materials would compensate for separation costs. The petitioners claim that any economic losses could be avoided by issuing a combustion permit which would serve as a waiver of the separation requirement if an incinerator operator could not find a recycling market for its recovered materials. See 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,245; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,286-87. As set forth in the proposed rules, if after 120 days an incinerator operator could not sell its separated materials, it could then obtain a combustion permit to burn them. 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,245; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,286-87. Combustion permits were omitted from the rules along with the separation requirements. 14 We do not find the petitioners' combustion permit rationale persuasive. According to the proposed rules, combustion permits were designed to encourage combustion rather than landfilling where recycling would not be feasible. See 54 Fed.Reg. at 42,245; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,286. In fact, as originally proposed, combustion permits would not have insured cost benefits because incinerator operators would have been required to continue separating waste even while operating under a permit. 54 Fed.Reg. at 42,245; 54 Fed.Reg. at 52,286. Because, under the proposed rules, combustion permits would not have solved the problems that led EPA to change its position, and because no genuine cost saving alternative to the proposed combustion permit was offered by commenters during the rule making proceedings, EPA was not obliged to address the combustion permit issue in its final rules. 8 15 The petitioners further claim that EPA improperly relied solely on the worst case scenario in arriving at its final conclusion regarding the economics of materials separation. Our review of the record demonstrates that several commenters supported EPA's economic predictions. See Summary of Public Comments and Responses, supra, at 4-55 to 4-56. Moreover, even if EPA's prediction did take into account the worst case scenario, its action would be permissible. This court has held that in applying a uniform standard to an industry, the standard must be capable of being met under most adverse conditions which can reasonably be expected to recur. National Lime Ass'n v. EPA, 627 F.2d 416, 431 n. 46 (D.C.Cir.1980). 16 Lastly, the petitioners claim that EPA acted improperly in relying on the opinion of the Council rather than exercising its own expertise. See Tyson, 796 F.2d at 1505 ([W]e cannot defer when the agency simply has not exercised its expertise.). After reviewing the record, we conclude that EPA did exercise its expertise in this case. The procedural history of the rules at issue demonstrates that the Council's views were important in formulating EPA's final policy decision regarding materials separation. The fact that EPA reevaluated its conclusions in light of the Council's advice, however, does not mean that EPA failed to exercise its own expertise in promulgating the final rules. 9 17 In sum, EPA's change of position on the materials separation issue was not improper. We are extremely deferential to administrative agencies in cases involving technical rulemaking decisions, see Tyson, 796 F.2d at 1505, and EPA has supported its new view of the materials separation policy with adequate evidence. Because the CAA allows EPA to balance air and nonair benefits and costs, which it did, EPA's decision not to promulgate materials separation rules was neither arbitrary nor capricious. 10