Opinion ID: 179005
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 1985 Act Saving Clause

Text: EnergySolutions points last to the 1985 Act's saving clause as textual support for a limitation on the Compact. The 1985 Act explicitly limits the effect of any compact on federal law: Except as expressly provided in sections 2021b to 2021j of this title, nothing contained in sections 2021b to 2021j of this title or any compact may be construed to limit the applicability of any Federal law or to diminish or otherwise impair the jurisdiction of any Federal agency, or to alter, amend, or otherwise affect any Federal law governing the judicial review of any action taken pursuant to any compact. 42 U.S.C. § 2021d(b)(4) (emphasis added). EnergySolutions highlights the language referring to the applicability of any Federal law. According to EnergySolutions, this means the only limits on federal law as embodied in the dormant Commerce Clause are the limits expressly set forth in the 1985 Act. As the appellants do not (and indeed cannot) dispute, the dormant Commerce Clause is `Federal law.' Aple. Br. at 35. EnergySolutions provides little support for this contention. And the logic of the contention is belied by the statutory scheme and the Compact approved by Congress. Indeed, since the dormant Commerce Clause is no longer a barrier after Congress approves an interstate agreement, EnergySolutions must show Congress purposely adopted this awkward phrasing to indicate it had not really consented to what it explicitly said it had consented to in the Compact. We doubt Congress intended to limit the Northwest Compact's power to regulate interstate commerce in legislation designed to grant that ability. While the phrase any Federal law plainly suggests statutory enactments, rules and regulations, and probably even decisional law, if Congress had wished to limit the compacts' authority over interstate commerce by leaving the Commerce Clause concerns unaffected, it would have chosen more precise language to indicate it had done so. EnergySolutions' interpretation is especially odd given that the dormant Commerce Clause is an implied structural restraint on state power that Congress was intentionally restoring through the grant of exclusionary authority. Neither the statute nor the legislative history on this point is particularly helpful. Congress certainly knew how to preempt compact language. For example, the provision of the saving clause regarding judicial review, 42 U.S.C. § 2021d(b)(4), was undoubtedly included to counteract a different compact's judicial review provision that Congress found objectionable. See EnergySolutions, 2009 WL 1392836 at -13 (quoting Senator Leahy's statements regarding judicial review provision in the Northeast Compact). This inclusion demonstrates Congress knew how to address specific provisions to which it did not wish to give its consent. It is certainly probative that Congress made no such attempt to specifically and clearly limit the exclusionary authority of compacts only to regional disposal facilities as defined in the 1985 Act. All we can say for sure is Congress resolved specific problems with specific compacts when it enacted the Consent Act. In the end, it would be incongruous to conclude the compact legislation indirectly and surreptitiously took away important explicit compact authority by incorporating imprecise limiting language from the saving clause to the 1985 Act. In sum, by approving the Northwest Compact, Congress abrogated the application of the dormant Commerce Clause to the Northwest Compact's authority over waste streams entering the Clive Facility. We therefore conclude the 1985 Act's saving clause does not indirectly limit this express grant of authority.