Ass'n of Battery Recyclers v. EPA

Opinion

 [*669]  [**102]   Per Curiam: In this case we consider challenges to EPA's revised emissions standards for secondary lead smelting facilities. Finding petitioners' claims unpersuasive, foreclosed by Circuit precedent, or otherwise barred from review, we deny in  [***2] part and dismiss in part the petitions for review.

 [*670]   [**103]  I.

Section 112 of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to promulgate emissions standards for major sources of hazardous air pollutants ("HAPs"). 42 U.S.C. § 7412(d)(1). To do so, EPA calculates the "maximum achievable control technology" or "MACT," a process that occurs in two stages. First, under CAA section 112(d)(3), EPA sets what it calls the "MACT floor"—certain minimum stringency requirements based on the amount of emissions reduction achieved in practice by the best performing sources. Id. § 7412(d)(3). Second, under section 112(d)(2), EPA "determines whether stricter standards, known as 'beyond-the-floor' limits, are achievable in light of the factors listed in [that provision]." Cement Kiln Recycling Coalition v. EPA, 255 F.3d 855, 858, 347 U.S. App. D.C. 127 (D.C. Cir. 2001) (per curiam); see 42 U.S.C. § 7412(d)(2).

] Section 112(d)(6) requires EPA to "review, and revise as necessary (taking into account developments in practices, processes, and control technologies)" the emissions standards promulgated under section 112. 42 U.S.C. § 7412(d)(6). Section 112(f)(2) also requires EPA to review emissions standards to "consider whether residual risks [to public  [***3] health or the environment] remain that warrant more stringent standards than achieved through MACT." Sierra Club v. EPA, 353 F.3d 976, 980, 359 U.S. App. D.C. 251 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see 42 U.S.C. § 7412(f)(2)(A).

In 2012, acting pursuant to sections 112(d)(6) and 112(f)(2), EPA revised the 1995 emissions standards for secondary lead smelting facilities, reducing allowable emissions by 90%—from the 2.0 milligrams per dry standard cubic meter (mg/dscm) previously permitted to 0.2 mg/dscm—and requiring smelters to totally enclose certain "fugitive" emission sources. See National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from Secondary Lead Smelting ("Secondary Lead Rule"), 77 Fed. Reg. 556, 559, 564 (Jan. 5, 2012). Several industry groups and environmental groups filed petitions for review. Environmental and industry petitioners intervened as respondents in one another's cases, and RSR Corporation intervened both as a petitioner and as a respondent.

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