ELR Citation: 55 ELR 20074
No(s). 23-1067 (U.S. Jun 18, 2025)

he U.S. Supreme Court, 8-0, held that EPA's disapprovals of Oklahoma's and Utah's SIPs were locally or regionally applicable actions reviewable in a regional circuit court. The two states petitioned the Tenth Circuit to review the disapprovals, which were two of 21 SIPs EPA disapproved in 2023 for failure to comply with 2015 revisions to the ozone NAAQS. EPA moved to dismiss or to transfer the suit to the D.C. Circuit, because the omnibus rule the Agency promulgated for the disapprovals asserted they would be reviewable only in the D.C. Circuit. The Tenth Circuit granted EPA's motion to transfer, finding the rule constituted a single, nationally applicable action because EPA had grouped its disapprovals into a single rule. The Supreme Court concluded that each SIP disapproval constituted its own "action," and that they were clearly locally or regionally applicable because a SIP is a state-specific action, disapproval of which on its face applies only to the state that proposed it. It further held that EPA's disapprovals were based on "a number of intensely factual determinations" particular to each state, and thus were not based on any determination of nationwide scope or effect. It reversed and remanded for further proceedings. Thomas, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson, JJ., joined. Gorsuch, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Roberts, C.J., joined. Alito, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.