Engine Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Maintenance District

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 20, 2007
Docket05-56654
StatusPublished

This text of Engine Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Maintenance District (Engine Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Maintenance District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Engine Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Maintenance District, (9th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ENGINE MANUFACTURERS  ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MAINTENANCE DISTRICT, (SCAQMD); WILLIAM A. BURKE, SCAQMD Board Chairman; NORMA J. GLOVER, SCAQMD Vice-Chairman; MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH, SCAQMD Board Member; HAL BERNSON, SCAQMD No. 05-56654 Board Member; JANE W. CARNEY, SCAQMD Board Member;  D.C. No. CV-00-09065-FMC CYNTHIA P. COAD, SCAQMD Board Member; BEATRICE J.S. OPINION LAPISTOKIRTLEY, SCAQMD Board Member; RONALD O. LOVERIDGE, SCAQMD Board Member; JON D. MIKELS, SCAQMD Board Member; LEONARD PAULITZ, SCAQMD Board Member; CYNTHIA VERDUGO-PERALTA, SCAQMD Board Member; S. ROY WILSON, SCAQMD Board Member; BARRY R. WALLERSTEIN, SCAQMD Executive Officer; Defendants-Appellees, 

10125 10126 ENGINE MFRS. ASS’N v. SCAQMD

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE  COUNCIL; COALITION FOR CLEAN AIR, INC.; COMMUNITIES FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT; PLANNING AND CONSERVATION LEAGUE; SIERRA CLUB, Defendants-Intervenors- Appellees,  v. WESTERN STATES PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff-Intervenor- Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Florence Marie Cooper, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted July 10, 2007—Pasadena, California

Filed August 20, 2007

Before: Barry G. Silverman, William A. Fletcher, and Richard R. Clifton, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge William A. Fletcher 10130 ENGINE MFRS. ASS’N v. SCAQMD COUNSEL

Timothy A. French, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg, Chicago, Illinois, for the appellant.

Fran M. Layton, Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, San Farn- cisco, California; Kurt R. Wiese, SCAQMD, Diamond Bar, California; Daniel P. Selmi, Los Angeles, California, for the appellees.

Julie Masters, Melissa L. Perrella, NRDC, Santa Monica, Cal- ifornia, for the defendant-intervenors-appellees.

Michael R. Barr, Kevin M. Fong, Pillsbury Winthrop, San Francisco, California; Mark E. Elliott, Pillsbury Madison, et al., Los Angeles, California, for the plaintiff-intervenor- appellant.

Kipp A. Coddington, Alston & Bird, Washington, D.C.; Timothey J. Dowling, Community Rights Counsel, Washing- ton, D.C.; Susan L. Durbin, Office of California Attorney General, Sacramento, California, for the amici curiae.

OPINION

W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-appellee South Coast Air Quality Management District (“the District”) is a political subdivision of the State of California responsible for air pollution control in the South Coast Air Basin (“the Basin”), an area comprising the City of Los Angeles and portions of surrounding counties. In 2000, the District enacted six “Fleet Rules” that require operators of various kinds of vehicle fleets — such as street sweepers, gar- bage trucks, and airport shuttles — to choose vehicles meet- ing specified emissions standards or containing specified ENGINE MFRS. ASS’N v. SCAQMD 10131 alternative-fuel engines when adding to their fleets. Some provisions of the Fleet Rules apply to state and local govern- mental agencies; others apply to federal governmental agen- cies and to private fleet operators. After a remand by the Supreme Court, we consider for the second time whether these Fleet Rules are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act (“CAA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo the district court’s grant of summary judgment, including its preemption analysis. See Chamber of Commerce v. Lockyer, 463 F.3d 1076, 1082 (9th Cir. 2006) (en banc). We affirm the district court in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

The Basin is the only area in the United States classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as an extreme nonat- tainment area for ozone. It is one of only five areas designated as a serious non-attainment area for small particulate matter. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 7511(a), 7513(b).

The District is charged with developing and implementing strategies to meet air quality standards within the Basin. See Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 40404, 40412, 40440. Califor- nia Health and Safety Code § 40447.5, adopted in 1987, authorizes the District to adopt regulations that

[r]equire operators of public and commercial fleet vehicles, consisting of 15 or more vehicles under a single owner or lessee and operating substantially in the south coast district, when adding vehicles to or replacing vehicles in an existing fleet or purchasing vehicles to form a new fleet, to purchase vehicles which are capable of operating on methanol or other equivalently clean burning alternative fuel and to require that these vehicles be operated, to the maxi- 10132 ENGINE MFRS. ASS’N v. SCAQMD mum extent feasible, on the alternative fuel when operating in the south coast district.

Id. § 40447.5(a).

Between June and October 2000, the District adopted six rules (the “Fleet Rules” or “Rules”) pursuant to § 40447.5. Each Rule applies only to fleet operators of 15 or more vehi- cles. The Rules variously refer to “purchasing,” “procuring,” “leasing,” and “contracting for” vehicles and appear to use the terms “purchasing” and “procuring” interchangeably. In order to be as clear as possible in our holding, and at the risk of awkward repetition, we adhere to the Rules’ terminology throughout this opinion.

Fleet Rule 1186.1 applies to fleet operators of street sweep- ers “when purchasing or leasing these vehicles for sweeping operations undertaken by or for governments or governmental agencies in the jurisdiction of [the District].”] The Rule applies to (1) “any federal, state, county, city or governmental department or agency, [and] any special district such as water, air, sanitation, transit, and school districts” (hereinafter, “pub- lic fleets”); and (2) any “private individual firm, association, franchise, contractor, user or owner who provides sweeping services to a governmental agency” (hereinafter, “private fleets with public contracts”). When purchasing or leasing street sweepers, these fleet operators must “acquire alternative-fuel or otherwise less-polluting sweepers.” An “alternative-fuel sweeper” is one with “engine(s) that use compressed or liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (propane), methanol, electricity, or fuel cells,” and “[h]ybrid- electric and dual-fuel technologies that use diesel fuel are not considered alternative-fuel technologies for the purposes of [the] rule.” Fleet operators may obtain a waiver from the Rule’s requirement if they “demonstrate the technical infeasi- bility of complying” either because no such sweepers are commercially available, or because a fueling station for alternative-fuel sweepers is “not available within five miles of ENGINE MFRS. ASS’N v. SCAQMD 10133 the vehicle storage or maintenance yards.” Rule 1186.1 also requires government agencies that contract for sweeping ser- vices to contract for sweeping services that use alternative- fuel sweepers if possible.

Fleet Rule 1191 applies to public fleets located in the Basin. It “requires passenger car, light-duty truck, or medium- duty vehicle fleet operators to acquire low-emitting gasoline or alternative-fuel vehicles . . . when procuring or leasing these vehicles in the District.” The Rule defines compliant vehicles by reference to emissions standards for low-emission vehicles set by the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) pursuant to California’s preemption waivers under § 209(b) of the Clean Air Act (discussed in greater detail below).

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