Michigan v. EPA

135 S.Ct. 2699 (2015)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Clean Air Act (CAA) establishes regulatory programs to control air pollution from stationary sources (such as refineries and factories) and moving sources (such as cars and airplanes). Congress established a unique procedure to determine the applicability of the program to fossil-fuel-fired power plants. Congress directed the Agency to “perform a study of the hazards to public health reasonably anticipated to occur as a result of emissions by [power plants] of [hazardous air pollutants] after imposition of the requirements of this chapter.” EPA concluded that regulation of coal- and oil-fired power plants was “appropriate and necessary.” The analysis estimated that the regulation would force power plants to bear costs of $9.6 billion per year. The Agency could not fully quantify the benefits of reducing power plants’ emissions of hazardous air pollutants; to the extent it could, it estimated that these benefits were worth $4 to $6 million per year. The ancillary benefits of cutting particulate matter and sulfur dioxide, substances that are not covered by the hazardous-air-pollutants program would be $37 to $90 billion per year. Ps challenged EPA's ruling. The Court of Appeals upheld the Agency’s decision not to consider cost The Supreme Court granted certiorari.