Supreme Court Must Rein in EPA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Calling it the most significant administrative law issue in twenty years, the United States Chamber of Commerce urged the Supreme Court to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from overstepping its authority, in a brief filed this afternoon in Browner v. ATA, et al.

"EPA's unbridled policymaking must be stopped once and for all," said Robin Conrad, senior vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center – the legal arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We are asking the Supreme Court to prevent any further 'mission creep' and rein in this federal agency run amok."

The Chamber has asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals that struck down EPA's broad interpretation of its statutory authority under the Clean Air Act. In that case, the Chamber argued – and the lower court agreed – that EPA had overstepped its authority by failing to explain how its proposed air standards for particulate matter (soot) and ozone (smog) protected public health with an adequate margin of safety. In papers filed today, the Chamber agreed with the lower court decision, but argued that all sides would benefit from the high court's interpretation of how EPA's authority should be defined.

"We want the Supreme Court to tell EPA that its days of irrational and unlimited decision-making are over," said Conrad. "We are also asking the court to overturn a 20-year old appellate court decision that prevents EPA from taking any form of cost-benefit analysis into consideration when setting standards."

According to the NCLC, the proposed standards would have been a crushing federal mandate on U.S. businesses. EPA's own conservative estimates of annual compliance costs exceed $45 billion and President Clinton's Economic Advisory Council estimated compliance costs in excess of $60 billion.

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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