API Seeks Supreme Court Review of U.S. EPA's Revised NO2 Standard
The American Petroleum Institute (API) filed a petition for writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) 2010 revised standard for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions. The petition states that Supreme Court review is appropriate as the case “presents a question regarding the limits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards.”
API asserts that, by upholding U.S. EPA’s revised NO2 standard, the D.C. Circuit unlawfully authorized U.S. EPA to exercise boundless discretion in establishing an air quality standard. Section 109(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act requires U.S. EPA to determine that a contemplated air quality standard is “requisite to protect the public health.” API claims that the scientific justification for the revised NO2 standard is based on a “simulated world” and, thus, U.S. EPA failed to show that lowering the standard is “requisite” or necessary to protect the public health.