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Keywords

clean air act

Related Cases

American Lung Ass’n v. E.P.A., 134 F.3d 388, 45 ERC 2025, 328 U.S.App.D.C. 232, 28 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,481

Facts

The American Lung Association and the Environmental Defense Fund challenged the EPA's decision not to revise the primary national ambient air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2). The EPA Administrator concluded that the substantial physical effects experienced by some asthmatics from exposure to short-term, high-level SO2 bursts did not amount to a public health problem. This decision followed a decade of data review and was made despite the acknowledgment that thousands of asthmatics could be affected by these bursts each year.

Approximately four percent of the nation's population suffers from asthma. Characterized by bronchoconstriction-shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and sputum production-asthma is triggered by many different stimuli, including cold or dry air, exercise or pollen, as well as airborne pollutants.

Issue

Did the EPA adequately explain its decision not to promulgate more stringent national ambient air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2) in light of the health effects on asthmatics?

Rule

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to establish national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) that protect public health, including sensitive populations such as asthmatics, without regard to cost or technological feasibility.

As amended, the Clean Air Act erects a comprehensive system of national ambient air quality standards (“NAAQS”) to regulate health-threatening air pollutants.

Analysis

The court found that the EPA's reasoning was insufficient to support its conclusion that SO2 bursts did not pose a public health problem. The Administrator's failure to adequately explain why the significant number of asthmatics affected by these bursts did not warrant regulatory action left gaps in the reasoning that could not be reconciled with the statutory requirements of the Clean Air Act.

The Administrator then discussed the three exposure analyses on which the 1994 version of the proposed rule rested. These studies estimated that from 180,000 to 395,000 “exposure events”-defined as a heavily breathing asthmatic exposed to an SO 2 burst-occur annually, affecting from 68,000 to 166,000 asthmatic individuals.

Conclusion

The court remanded the case to the EPA for further explanation of its decision regarding the public health implications of SO2 bursts.

Given the gaps in the Final Decision's reasoning, we must remand this case to permit the Administrator to explain her conclusions more fully.

Who won?

The environmental and health organizations prevailed in the sense that the court found the EPA's reasoning inadequate and remanded the case for further explanation.

Petitioners now challenge the Administrator's decision declining to promulgate a new NAAQS. They assert that by failing to establish a five-minute NAAQS capping SO 2 emissions at 0.60 ppm, EPA has violated its statutory responsibility to protect the public health.

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Keywords

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