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Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to EPA pollution rule
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a major copper company’s plea to review an Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rule that set standards for sulfur dioxide, a pollutant tied to several respiratory ailments.
The justices denied Asarco LLC’s request to review an appellate court decision that upheld EPA’s 2010 regulation, which had drawn challenges from several states, companies and industry groups.
Asarco, which operates a major copper smelter in Arizona, in October asked the high court to review whether EPA illegally set a standard — 75 parts per billion over one hour — that it calls overly stringent.
The company had alleged that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit failed to properly restrain EPA’s discretion in setting the exposure standard for SO2.
“The question thus presented is: Whether the court below erred by concluding that EPA’s authority to include an adequate margin of safety allowed the court to avoid determining whether the revised sulfur dioxide national ambient air quality standard was more stringent than is necessary to protect public health,” Asarco's petition for Supreme Court review stated.
The Supreme Court rejected the certiorari petition without comment Tuesday.
EPA has said the rule will bring major benefits.
“EPA estimates that the revised standard will yield health benefits valued between $13 billion and $33 billion, including reduced hospital admissions, emergency room visits, work days lost due to illness, and cases of aggravated asthma and chronic bronchitis, among other benefits,” the agency said in a 2010 summary of the standards.
