Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation v. EPA, 540 U.S. 461, 36 (2004)

Page:   Index   Previous  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  Next

496

ALASKA DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION v. EPA

Opinion of the Court

IV

A

We turn finally, and more particularly, to the reasons why we conclude that EPA properly exercised its statutory authority in this case. ADEC urges that, even if the Act allows the Agency to issue stop-construction orders when a state permitting authority unreasonably determines BACT, EPA acted impermissibly in this instance. See Brief for Petitioner 39-48. We note, first, EPA's threshold objection. ADEC's petition to this Court questioned whether the Act accorded EPA oversight authority with respect to a State's BACT determination. Pet. for Cert. 13-22. ADEC did not present, as a discrete issue, the question whether EPA, assuming it had authority to review the substance of a state BACT determination, nevertheless abused its authority by countermanding ADEC's permit for the Red Dog Mine expansion. See Brief for Respondents 44-45; cf. Reply Brief for Petitioner 15-16, n. 12 ("EPA asserts authority to overturn only 'arbitrary or unreasoned' state BACT determinations. . . . Thus, whether the State issued a reasoned justification is 'fairly included' within the question presented[.]"). Treating the case-specific issue as embraced within the sole question presented, we are satisfied that EPA did not act arbitrarily in finding that ADEC furnished no tenable accounting for its determination that Low NOx was BACT for MG-17.

Because the Act itself does not specify a standard for judicial review in this instance,18 we apply the familiar default standard of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 706(2)(A), and ask whether the Agency's action was "arbi-18 The Court of Appeals referred to 42 U. S. C. § 7607(d)(9)(A) when it considered whether EPA's decision was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." 298 F. 3d 814, 822 (CA9 2002). Section 7607(d)(9), however, applies only to the "subsection" concerning rulemaking in which it is embedded.

Page:   Index   Previous  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007