Court Opinion

ID: 9486803
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:00:41.841508+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:56.603828
License: Public Domain

WELLFORD, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the Order holding that under the special circumstances of this case we deem the administrative stop work order of *316the EPA to be “final agency action” and that the statute does not expressly preclude judicial review. I am persuaded that to hold otherwise under the facts of this case would involve serious due process concerns. I cannot believe that Congress intended that EPA have the unreviewable authority to close down indefinitely construction of a major plant which had not yet initiated any emissions without the opportunity for a full-scale hearing to determine whether the emission system, already approved by the state environmental agency, was in violation of applicable law and regulations.
I note that over a period of months EPA has made no effort to institute an enforcement action against Allsteel in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, which unquestionably would have jurisdiction to conduct hearings to determine the very issues raised by the EPA’s administrative stop order. Rather, EPA, content that it has effectually precluded manufacturing operations, has apparently sat back with its asserted position that Allsteel has no remedy in court and must seek approval, hat in hand, from its administrative staff which has disagreed with the actions of the Tennessee agency with responsibilities also to deal with air pollution and air emission control of the Allsteel facility at Milan, Tennessee.
Even if Congress were deemed to have intended, in such a situation, to preclude judicial review, I would be inclined to hold that unless EPA brought an enforcement action, in absence of agreement with a party in the posture of Allsteel, within a reasonable time, the Clean Air Act may be unenforceable as violative of constitutional due process.
I would add also that not every administrative stop order would be deemed final agency action. Only in such an unusual fact situation as this would our court deem such an order to meet the requirements discussed herein.