Cite as: 531 U. S. 457 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
38856, 38885 (1997); see also id., at 38873 ("[T]he provisions of subpart 1 . . . would apply to the implementation of the new 8-hour ozone standards"). To use a few apparent gaps in Subpart 2 to render its textually explicit applicability to nonattainment areas under the new standard utterly inoperative is to go over the edge of reasonable interpretation. The EPA may not construe the statute in a way that completely nullifies textually applicable provisions meant to limit its discretion.
The EPA's interpretation making Subpart 2 abruptly obsolete is all the more astonishing because Subpart 2 was obviously written to govern implementation for some time. Some of the elements required to be included in SIP's under Subpart 2 were not to take effect until many years after the passage of the CAA. See § 7511a(e)(3) (restrictions on "electric utility and industrial and commercial boiler[s]" to be "effective 8 years after November 15, 1990"); § 7511a(c)(5)(A) (vehicle monitoring program to "[b]egi[n] 6 years after November 15, 1990"); § 7511a(g)(1) (emissions milestone requirements to be applied "6 years after November 15, 1990, and at intervals of every 3 years thereafter"). A plan reaching so far into the future was not enacted to be abandoned the next time the EPA reviewed the ozone standard—which Congress knew could happen at any time, since the technical staff papers had already been completed in late 1989. See 58 Fed. Reg. 13008, 13010 (1993); see also 42 U. S. C. § 7409(d)(1) (NAAQS must be reviewed and, if appropriate, revised at least once every five years). Yet nothing in the EPA's interpretation would have prevented the agency from aborting Subpart 2 the day after it was enacted. Even now, if the EPA's interpretation were correct, some areas of the country could be required to meet the new, more stringent ozone standard in at most the same time that Subpart 2 had allowed them to meet the old standard. Compare § 7502(a)(2) (Subpart 1 attainment dates) with § 7511(a) (Sub-part 2 attainment dates). Los Angeles, for instance, "would
485
Page: Index Previous 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007