ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20164
No(s). 23-3216/3225 (6th Cir. Dec 6, 2024)

The Sixth Circuit vacated EPA's 2023 disapproval of a SIP proposed by Kentucky to comply with Agency changes to ozone NAAQS. Kentucky challenged the disapproval, which rested on different modeling that came out after the Agency's deadline for submitting the plan and on a lower threshold than the one the Agency told Kentucky it could use. EPA sought to transfer the challenge to the D.C. Circuit because it had disapproved the plan in a rule that also rejected 20 other SIPs. The Sixth Circuit denied EPA's transfer motion, holding that Kentucky properly sued there because the disapproval was not a nationally applicable final action or based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect. It further held EPA's disapproval violated the APA because it told Kentucky to use certain modeling and a certain threshold and then denied the SIP using different modeling and a different threshold. It vacated EPA's disapproval.