Economic and Technical Feasibility in Clean Air Act Enforcement against Stationary Sources

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 established a national program of pollution control to be administered jointly by the states and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. National air quality standards have not yet been attained, however, because the legality of EPA approval and enforcement of state antipollution plans that impose economic hardship on industry is still undetermined. In this article, the author argues that Congress intended air quality standards to be met even at significant cost to industry, including shutdown, and develops a framework for decision making in challenges to administrative action under the Clean Air Act. Economic and technical feasibility, he concludes, is generally irrelevant to Federal approval of state implementation plans and does not constitute a defense to Federal or state enforcement of those plans.