Environmental Law — Clean Air Act — carbon dioxide

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Environmental Law — Clean Air Act — carbon dioxide

The Clean Air Act neither compels nor permits EPA to adopt an interpretation of the Act requiring a carbon dioxide source to obtain a PSD or Title V permit on the sole basis of its potential greenhouse-gas emissions.

Agencies empowered to resolve statutory ambiguities must operate “within the bounds of reasonable interpretation,” Arlington v. FCC, 569 U. S. ___, ___. EPA has repeatedly acknowledged that applying the PSD and Title V permitting requirements to greenhouse gases would be inconsistent with the Act’s structure and design. A review of the relevant statutory provisions leaves no doubt that the PSD program and Title V are designed to apply to, and cannot rationally be extended beyond, a relative handful of large sources capable of shouldering heavy substantive and procedural burdens. EPA’s interpretation would also bring about an enormous and transformative expansion in EPA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization. FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U. S. 120, 160.

684 F. 3d 102, affirmed in part and reversed in part.

12-1146 Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA

Scalia, J.; Breyer, J., concurring in part, and dissenting in part; Alito, J., concurring in part, and dissenting in part.