Court Opinion

ID: 9636193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:19:11.698464+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:42.800342
License: Public Domain

Justice CASTILLE,
concurring.
Although I share many of the concerns expressed in Madame Justice Newman’s thoughtful Dissenting Opinion, I nevertheless join the Majority Opinion in its entirety. I write only to explain why I tender my joinder notwithstanding the concerns I share with the Dissent.
The Dissenting Opinion expresses concern with the legitimacy of an agency establishing a regulatory regime which would allow for consideration, under the “Harms/Benefits Test,” of “benefits” totally unrelated to the solid waste project at issue, such as an applicant’s establishing a school or making charitable contributions, in order to provide for the benefits side of the equation. The Dissent has not pulled this concern out of thin air. Rather, the EQB has produced a “guidance document” which defines the regulatory term “social and economic benefits” as including precisely such items unrelated to the projects. If the actual regulations promulgated by the EQB in point of fact allowed for consideration of such unrelated matters on the benefits side of the equation, or if this case *521involved a challenge to the EQB insisting upon such unrelated benefits before approving an application, the regulatory action could not pass muster in my opinion.
Mr. Justice Baer’s thorough and erudite analysis, however, has satisfied me that the “guidance document” relied upon by the Dissent is not a binding document, it played no role in the actual litigation of this case, and it may not strictly be at issue. More importantly for purposes of the tender of my joinder, the Majority stresses that it construes the EQB’s regulations as requiring benefits that have a direct relationship to the project itself. Slip op. at 11-12 & n. 11. In this regard, it seems to me, the views of the Majority and the Dissent concerning the necessity that benefits must be directly related to the proposed project are not far apart.
If a case were to arise where the EQB followed its guidance document, rather than its regulation, there should be no doubt that such a determination would not be sustainable. The EQB perhaps should attend to redrafting any such material to conform to the statutory mandate, its regulations as issued, and the guidance of this Court’s opinion. In short, although I do not see the Dissent’s concerns as at all baseless, I am sufficiently satisfied that they are premature.