Opinion ID: 1037689
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: EPA’s Grant of Shell’s Permit and Alaska

Text: Wilderness’s Challenge To comply with Title V, Shell sought and obtained three related permits in 2011. At Shell’s request, the EPA subsequently consolidated the permits into one permitting document (the “Permit”). The Permit allows Shell to construct, operate, and conduct “pollutant emitting activities” associated with the Kulluk in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope. Before issuing the Permit, the EPA released a Statement of Basis. The Statement of Basis provided that the EPA would not require Shell to analyze the effect its emissions would have on the increment for the Kulluk’s area of operation. During the public comment period on the Permit, commenters took issue with this decision and the EPA’s rationale in the Statement of Basis. The EPA’s Response to Comments, issued contemporaneously with the Permit, addressed these concerns. The EPA concluded that increment analysis was unnecessary, because, under § 7661c(e) and the other relevant statutes, no increment requirements were “applicable” to the Kulluk. ALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE V. EPA 7 The Permit and Response to Comments also announced the EPA’s decision to grant Shell’s requested exemption of 500 meters surrounding the Kulluk from “ambient air” regulations. The Permit conditioned the exemption on the establishment of a U.S. Coast Guard “safety zone” and a “public access control program” to restrict public access to the waters within 500 meters of the Kulluk. Alaska Wilderness raised the increment and ambient air issues, among others, in its challenge of the Permit before the EAB. Alaska Wilderness contended that the EPA misinterpreted “applicable increment” under § 7661c(e). Alaska Wilderness argued that EPA’s “source-based” interpretation erred by applying increment standards to temporary sources only if the PSD would impose increment standards on a similar stationary source. Alaska Wilderness maintained a “geography based” interpretation—that increment requirements are “applicable” to all sources any time they are established for the geographic area. Alaska Wilderness also argued that the “ambient air” exemption was inconsistent with the Costle Letter, because Shell did not own and could not, by physical barrier, exclude the public from accessing the space. In a 100-page decision (the “EAB Decision”), the EAB rejected both challenges. With respect to the increment issue, the EAB held: Increments . . . are not directly imposed by [§ 7661c(e)]. Instead, they must be implemented (i.e., applied to a source) through either of two means: (1) a state implementation plan, per [§ 7471] and 40 C.F.R. § 51.166(a)(1); or (2) the PSD major source permitting program, per [§ 7475(a)(3)(A)] and 40 C.F.R. § 52.21. 8 ALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE V. EPA Thus, while [§ 7661c(e)] can serve as the direct source of NAAQS compliance requirements and other [Clean Air Act] requirements for temporary sources, it only imposes PSD increment requirements to the extent such requirements are “applicable” to the source. Alaska Wilderness’s timely petition (the “Petition”) for review of the EAB Decision followed.