U.S. Chamber Fires Opening Shots As Clean Air Case Returns

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reaffirm its earlier finding that the Environmental Protection Agency's revisions to the national air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter are invalid and should be struck down.

"It's time for the D.C. Circuit to put an end to EPA's unrelenting efforts to extend its regulatory power and engage in unprincipled decision-making," said Steve Bokat, Chamber general counsel and executive vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Chamber's legal arm. "We are confident the Court will uphold its prior two rulings and invalidate these arbitrary standards once and for all."

The National Chamber Litigation Center, the legal arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, other industry business groups and several Midwestern states filed suit in July 1997 challenging the EPA's revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter and ozone. The Chamber and its allies 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 that the standards were invalid because EPA provided no reasonable basis for choosing the new standards over the existing standards. That decision was upheld when the EPA appealed to the full Court. In February 2001, the Supreme Court blocked implementation of the revised ozone standard and sent both standards back to the lower court to decide whether EPA acted arbitrarily when it selected the new standards in the first place.

"This litigation is part of the Chamber's long fight to bring reason back into our nation's regulatory system," said Bokat. "The government's own estimates for the ozone standard alone show that the total cost of compliance for businesses would rival the gross national product of Canada - $720 billion dollars."

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.

# # #

01-129