E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. Train

Background

Eight inorganic chemical manufacturing companies challenged Environmental Protection Agency regulations that set precise numerical pollution limits for whole classes and subcategories of plants. EPA’s rules imposed three sets of limits: controls to be met by 1977, tighter limits by 1983, and separate standards for new plants. EPA used a technical Development Document, divided the industry into 22 subcategories, and included a limited variance process for the 1977 limits. The companies sued, and the courts of appeals divided on whether EPA could issue binding industrywide rules and which courts could review them.

Reasoning

The Court addressed three questions in plain terms: whether EPA may issue industrywide rules for existing plants, whether those rules are reviewed in the federal courts of appeals, and whether the new-plant standards allow individual exceptions. Reading the statute’s language and history, the Court found §301 focused on categories and classes and therefore authorized EPA to adopt regulations setting uniform effluent limits. It held §509 gives the courts of appeals direct review of those §301 regulations. The Court also concluded that the new-source standards under the statute contain no provision for individual variances and therefore must be enforced as written.

Real world impact

The decision confirms EPA’s authority to set uniform pollution limits across categories of chemical plants and places review of those regulations in the federal courts of appeals. Thousands of dischargers—EPA noted over 42,000 permit applicants—are affected because permits incorporate these limits. New plants cannot obtain individualized variances from the national new-source standards. The Court reversed the appeals court’s requirement that EPA provide a variance mechanism for new sources and otherwise affirmed the lower courts’ rulings.