ARTBA squashes EPA

ARTBA the roadbuilder lobby based in Washington DC won a huge legal victory over the USEPA’s administration of the clean air act in the US Court of Appeals May 14. The court said by 2/1 that EPA had acted without constitutional authority in the manner in which it set clean air standards. The panel of judges was unanimous in declaring the agency standards were “arbitrary and capricious” and hence unlawful. The three judges agreed that the agency arbitrarily excluded important evidence casting doubt on the need for tighter standards for ozone, and said it adopted an indefensible measurement method for particulates. The court also said the new rules were unenforcable. A more total defeat for the EPA would be hard to conceive.

It would seem the EPA will have to start its standards setting process – which lasts years – over again, or the Congress will be forced to do a major rewrite of the Clean Air Act, or the EPA will be left without any veto power over metropolitan transportation plans. Which might not be the end of life on planet earth.