Court Opinion

ID: 9480892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:02:06.628185+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:59.353456
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur completely in the Court’s opinion, but I would make one further point concerning exhaustion of administrative remedies. If the EPA action revoking its delegation of permit authority for the facility was “final agency action” within the meaning of § 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, then jurisdiction was exclusively in the Court of Appeals. If the action of the EPA was in fact “nonfinal,” then the plaintiffs would be obligated under standard administrative law doctrine to exhaust their administrative remedies before bringing suit. See, e.g., Crocker v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Ass’n, 873 F.2d 933, 935-36 (6th Cir.1989) (exhaustion requirement allows administrative agency to apply its expertise, develop facts, promote efficiency, and protect authority of administrative process). Both the Administrative Procedure Act and the Clean Air Act require exhaustion of administrative remedies prior to federal court review. See Whitney Nat'l Bank v. Bank of New Orleans, 379 U.S. 411, 422, 85 S.Ct. 551, 558, 13 L.Ed.2d 386 (1965) (where Congress “has enacted a specific statutory scheme for obtaining review, ... the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies ... requires that the statutory mode of review be adhered to.”); Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 824 F.2d 1146, 1150 (D.C.Cir.1987) (stating that § 307(d) of Clean Air Act is statutory exhaustion requirement). Though in select circumstances “nonfinal” action would be properly heard in the District Court, see Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184, 79 S.Ct. 180, 3 L.Ed.2d 210 (1958), this, as we have said above, is not such a situation.
Thus under either theory the District Court was without authority to decide the case on the merits. Either the EPA action was “final,” and therefore jurisdiction was in the Court of Appeals, or the EPA action was “nonfinal,” and therefore the doctrine of exhaustion would require that further steps be taken to exhaust EPA remedies before review is taken.