D.C. Circuit Rejects Broad Challenge To EPA Ozone Rulings

On June 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit categorically rejected consolidated petitions by several states, municipalities, industrial entities, and environmental groups challenging findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that designated regions had failed to meet certain ozone restrictions under the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.). 

At issue was Title I of the Act, which requires the EPA to promulgate National Ambient Air Quality Standards ("NAAQS"), thereby establishing the maximum level of permissible pollutant concentration in the atmosphere.  The EPA must then discern whether states – and, particularly, geographical areas within such states – are in "attainment" with these ground-level ozone NAAQS.  Although the petitioners here employed various arguments against the EPA's findings, nearly every entity claimed that the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in rendering these NAAQS designations.