Clean Air Ruling

Re “Tortured Logic in Air Ruling,” editorial, May 20: Congress legislates; the executive branch “executes.” Every student of the U.S. Constitution knows that, but a federal appeals court had to tell it to the Environmental Protection Agency recently. This was not, as The Times describes it, a dusty theory left over from the 1930s. Courts have applied the “non-delegation” doctrine over the last 30 years to remind federal agencies that they have narrow constraints for their regulatory powers.

Congress appropriately told EPA to set standards “requisite to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety.” It was then EPA’s job to define exactly what “protection” was adequate. But EPA never came close to doing it, and that is why the court told the EPA it must redraft the Clean Air Act standards. The court did not strike down (nor did we ask it to) an entire section of the Clean Air Act. Instead, it asked EPA to fix the problem, and we believe that is principled judicial decision-making at its best.

THOMAS J. DONOHUE

President, U.S. Chamber

of Commerce, Washington