U.S. Chamber Beats EPA on Clean Air Rules Again

Washington, D.C. – The full D.C. Court of Appeals today agreed with the United States Chamber of Commerce and refused to rehear an earlier decision striking down the Environmental Protection Agency's revised Clean Air Act regulations.

"Once again, the court agreed with American business that the EPA standards were simply pulled out of thin air, and are not based on sound science," said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue. "It's a victory for all businesses and a blow to the EPA's efforts to extend its regulatory fingers where they don't belong."

According to the Chamber, the agency's proposed standards would have been a crushing federal mandate on U.S. businesses. The EPA's own estimates show that the cost of compliance for businesses would have been $45 billion per year.

The National Chamber Litigation Center, the legal arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other business groups filed suit in July 1997 challenging the EPA's revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter and ozone. The Chamber argued the new standards were not supported by sound science and that the EPA failed to explain how the standards would protect public health with an adequate margin of safety.

In May 1999 the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in the Chamber's favor. The EPA appealed to the Court, but lost again with today's ruling.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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