ELR Citation: ELR 20247
No(s). 06-1122 (4th Cir. Dec 12, 2006)

The court upheld a lower court decision that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it approved certain amendments to West Virginia's surface coal mining regulatory program. Contrary to arguments of the DOI, the agency was required to comply with the APA's §553 rulemaking procedures. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act does not preempt the APA's requirement to publish a written statement explaining the findings that lead to the approval of a state program. In addition, the approval of state program amendments constitutes rulemaking for purposes of judicial review. Hence, the lower court did not err in applying APA standards to the rulemaking. In addition, the DOI's failure to analyze and explain its decision to approve West Virginia's state program amendment rendered the action arbitrary and capricious. The amendment deleted the definition of "cumulative impact" from the state regulations. The DOI based its decision to approve the deletion exclusively on the absence of a corresponding definition in the federal regulations, ignoring any actual effect that the change might have on West Virginia's program. The APA procedures, however, are designed to avoid that kind of rubber-stamp approval and require more of the agency.