The Supreme Court Upholds EPA Standard- Setting Under the Clean Air Act: Whitman v. American Trucking Ass'ns

Summary

On February 27, 2001, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Whitman v.

American

Trucking Associations , a challenge to EPA's promulgation in 1997 of revised national ambient

air

quality standards for ozone and particulates under the Clean Air Act. On the broader issues, the

Court ruled that (1) the Act's provisions governing the setting of primary (health-protective) ambient

standards did not transgress the "nondelegation doctrine," a moribund constitutional principle that

the court below had resurrected, and (2) the Act bars EPA from considering implementation costs

when it sets primary national ambient standards. On a narrow issue, the Court held that EPA had

not been justified, in promulgating its ozone implementation plan, in applying only the Act's

nonattainment-area subpart of general application, rather than a subpart specific to ozone

nonattainment. As a result, the Court charged the agency with developing a "reasonable

interpretation" accommodating both subparts. Such accommodation is likely to prove a difficult

task, however, and almost certainly once adopted will generate further legal challenges.