{"id":276,"date":"2011-08-01T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T04:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harvardelr.org\/?p=276"},"modified":"2023-07-25T16:00:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T20:00:32","slug":"comment-howmet-corp-v-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/2011\/08\/01\/comment-howmet-corp-v-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"Comment: Howmet Corp. v. EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Nathan Kilbert<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In <em>Howmet Corp. v. EPA<\/em>,\u00a0614 F.3d 544 (D.C. Cir. 2010), the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (\u201cEPA\u201d or \u201cthe Agency\u201d) enforcement action as consistent with EPA\u2019s regulations defining regulable \u201cspent material\u201d under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (\u201cRCRA\u201d).\u00a0 The court\u2019s decision is a striking abdication of the judicial responsibility to ensure that administrative agencies act only within statutory limits. In deferring to EPA\u2019s position as a reasonable interpretation of the Agency\u2019s rule, the majority failed to consider the overarching statutory limits that arguably render EPA\u2019s reading of the regulation inconsistent with RCRA. When review of the original rule has been timebarred by statute, this shortsighted deference allows an agency to interpret an ambiguous rule in order to exercise power over activities outside the agency\u2019s congressional grant of authority. In dissent, Judge Kavanaugh moved toward an interpretive approach that would prevent such agency overreach by allowing the text of the statute to inform judgments of the reasonableness of the agency\u2019s reading of its rules.<\/p>\n<p>This Comment first addresses the statutory, regulatory, and factual background of the case and relates the decision of the district court. Then, it discusses the majority and dissenting opinions in the Court of Appeals. Third, the Comment briefly lays out the rationale for <em>Seminole Rock<\/em> deference and some criticisms of it. Finally, it examines how the <em>Howmet<\/em> majority\u2019s opinion interacts with <em>Seminole Rock<\/em> deference and argues that courts could better enforce statutory limits on agency power by evaluating the reasonableness of agency regulatory interpretations in the light of the authorizing statute.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cite as: <\/strong>Nathan Kilbert, Comment,<em> Howmet Corp. v. EPA<\/em>, 35 <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps\">Harv. Envtl. L. Rev.<\/span> 555 (2011).<\/p>\n<p>[btn link=&#8221;http:\/\/www.law.harvard.edu\/students\/orgs\/elr\/vol35_2\/Kilbert.pdf&#8221; color=&#8221;forestGreen&#8221;]View Full Artilce (PDF)[\/btn]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nathan Kilbert In Howmet Corp. v. EPA,\u00a0614 F.3d 544 (D.C. Cir. 2010), the Court of Appeals for the District [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[8,218,220],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-print","category-student-comment","tag-administrative-law","tag-rcra","tag-regulated-industry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/79\/2011\/08\/14-0966a.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZkUb-4s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/elr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}