EPA is set to release a reworked justification for its “good neighbor” smog control plan aimed at addressing objections that led to a Supreme Court stay.
The White House regulations office Tuesday completed a routine review of what EPA has elsewhere dubbed a “supplemental final action,” according to a notice posted on a government tracking website. An agency spokesperson had no immediate information Wednesday on when the supplement will be made public.
EPA had sought the do-over in August, two months after the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, had stayed the good neighbor plan on the grounds that agency officials had not reasonably explained how its requirements would work if covering fewer states than first anticipated.
The high court issued the decision via its emergency — or shadow — docket even as lawsuits challenging the plan continue to play out before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In asking the D.C. Circuit for a chance to address the high court majority’s concern, attorneys for the agency wrote that “it would be most efficient to address that possible error now.”
