The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding Oklahoma’s challenge of the EPA’s rejection of the state’s “Good Neighbor” plan intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants.
The Justices said the Denver federal appeals court was wrong to refer Oklahoma’s challenge to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a decision that prompted the state’s challenge in March 2023.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond responded saying he is grateful the Supreme Court agreed with his challenge. In Oklahoma v. Environmental Protection Agency, the justices unanimously supported Oklahoma’s position that the case should be returned to the Tenth Circuit.
“The EPA action, taken under the Biden-Harris Administration, was federal overreach of the first order,” Drummond said. “Federal bureaucrats rejected the work and expertise of our own Department of Environmental Quality and instead sought to shackle Oklahoma with a one-size-fits-all plan with a litany of onerous emissions requirements. State sovereignty was under constant attack by the previous occupant of the White House, and the EPA was only too happy to oblige.”
Oklahoma’s DEQ had created the “Good Neighbor” state implementation plan to ensure compliance with Clean Air Act requirements that address emissions contributing to ozone levels downwind.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas stated, “EPA’s and the Tenth Circuit’s contrary arguments do not
survive scrutiny,” and that “The Tenth Circuit’s endorsement of EPA’s position is equally unpersuasive.”
He went on to write that the EPA’s disapprovals of the plans were not based on any determination of nationwide scope or effect.
“The Tenth Circuit erred in holding that petitioners’ challenges should be reviewed in the D. C. Circuit. EPA’s disapprovals of the Oklahoma and Utah SIPs (State Implementation Plan) are locally or regionally applicable actions. And, these cases are not ones where the “nationwide scope or effect” exception applies.”
Justice Thomas said the challenge by Oklahoma could only be heard in a regional circuit.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
In his ruling, he also found that of other challenges to the plans by other states, four of the five Circuit Courts of Appeal found a regional review was proper. Only the Tenth Circuit disagreed and granted the EPA’s motion to transfer the suits by Oklahoma and Utah to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read the U.S. Supreme Court order.
