9 to 0

[Levy.Dave at epamail.epa.gov]

SMOGGY WENT A COURTIN' AND THEY DID FAIL, UH-HUH
In one of its most significant environmental decisions in years, the
U.S. Supreme Court today rejected industry arguments and unanimously
upheld the way the federal government sets clean air standards.  The
trucking and manufacturing industries argued that the U.S. EPA should
consider compliance costs and not just health benefits in setting the
standards.  But Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the court opinion
that the Clean Air Act "unambiguously bars cost considerations."  The
high court also ruled that the section of the act on which the EPA
relied in reaching standards for ozone and particulate pollution in
1997 did not amount to an unconstitutional delegation of legislative
power from Congress to the executive branch.  However, in a third
part of the ruling, the court said that the EPA's implementation plan
for the ozone standard was unreasonable and must be revisited.

straight to the source:  St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Associated Press,
Laurie Asseo, 27 Feb 2001
<http://www.postnet.com/postnet/news/wires.nsf/National/6BDA3CF75498E2
EC86256A00005E3A6E>

straight to the source:  Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb 2001
<http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20010227/tCB00a5307.html>