Court Orders Steps to Control Refueling Fumes

A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to make auto manufacturers start installing special canisters on cars and light trucks to control gasoline fumes.

Congress, as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act, mandated that vehicles coming off the assembly lines beginning with the 1996 model year be equipped with the on-board refueling vapor recovery (ORVR) systems.

But four days before the Michigan primary last March, then-President George Bush announced that the EPA was backing off implementing regulations as part of a regulatory relief package for the hard-pressed auto industry.

“EPA’s decision not to promulgate ORVR standards was beyond the pale of its statutory authority,” said a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

In an opinion written by Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards, the appeals court rejected the Bush Administration’s contention that EPA had the discretion under the 1990 law to reject the devices after the National Transportation Safety Board concluded they pose a fire hazard.

“The statute expressly provides that EPA ‘shall’ promulgate standards ‘after’ consultation with the Department of Transportation, not ‘subject to’ or ‘conditioned upon’ that consultation,” the court said. Concurring in the decision were Circuit Judges Ruth B. Ginsburg and Stephen F. Williams.

To control the fumes, EPA already is making gasoline stations in cities with smog problems install rubber boots on fuel nozzles to create a tight seal with the filler spouts on cars and recapture the vapors.