ENTERGY CORP. V. RIVERKEEPER, INC.
129 S.Ct. 1498 (2009)
NATURE OF THE CASE: This was a dispute over a set of regulations adopted by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or agency) under §316(b) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.
S. C. §1326(b). Respondents-environmental groups and various States-challenged those
regulations, and the Second Circuit set them aside. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
FACTS: Entergy (Petitioners) operate powerplants. The use of cooling water intake
structures subjects them to regulation under the Clean Water Act. The §1326(b) regulations
ere promulgated by the EPA after nearly three decades in which the determination of the
“best technology available for minimizing [cooling water intake structures’] adverse
environmental impact” was made by permit-issuing authorities on a case-by-case basis,
without benefit of a governing regulation. In its Phase II rules the EPA expressly declined
to mandate adoption of closed-cycle cooling systems or equivalent reductions in impingement
and entrainment, as it had done for new facilities subject to the Phase I rules. The
regulations permit the issuance of site-specific variances from the national performance
standards if a facility can demonstrate either that the costs of compliance are
“significantly greater than” the costs considered by the agency in setting the standards, or
that the costs of compliance “would be significantly greater than the benefits of complying
with the applicable performance standards.” Riverkeeper (Respondents) challenged the EPA’s
Phase II regulations, and the Second Circuit granted their petition for review and remanded
the regulations to the EPA. The Court of Appeals held the site-specific cost-benefit
variance provision to be unlawful. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
ISSUE:
RULE OF LAW:
HOLDING AND DECISION:
LEGAL ANALYSIS:
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