Cite as: 540 U. S. 461 (2004)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
seven years. Brief for National Environmental Development Association et al. as Amici Curiae 8. Under the new multiple-tiered process, permit expenditures become less justified, state officials less credible, reliance less certain. The Court should be under no illusion that its decision respects the State's administrative process.
The federal balance is remitted, in many instances, to Congress. Here the Court remits it to a single agency official. This is inconsistent with the assurance Congress gave to regulated entities when it allowed state agencies to decide upon the grant or denial of a permit under the BACT provisions of the CAA.
III
In the end EPA appears to realize the weakness of its arguments and asks us simply to defer to its expertise in light of the purported statutory ambiguity. See Brief for Respondents 41-43 (asking for deference under Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984)). To its credit, the majority holds Chevron deference inapplicable. Deference is inappropriate for all the reasons the majority recites, ante, at 487-488, plus one more: The statute is not in any way ambiguous. As a result, our inquiry should proceed no further.
Actions, however, speak louder than words, and the majority ends up giving EPA the very Chevron deference—and more—it says should be denied. The Court's opinion is chock full of Chevron-like language. Compare 467 U. S., at 843 ("whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute"); id., at 845 ("whether the Administrator's view . . . is a reasonable one"), with ante, at 488 ("[EPA's] arguments do not persuade us to reject [them] as impermissible"); ante, at 493 ("That rational interpretation, we agree, is surely permissible"). So deficient are its statutory arguments that the majority must hide behind Chevron's vocabulary, despite its explicit holding that Chevron does not apply. In applying Chevron de facto under these
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