court upholds established snowmobile emissions standards

The DC Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency's standards of snowmobile emissions. The ruling upholds the standards created by the EPA and the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA) in November 2002.

The decision came after an appeal of the Bluewater Network vs. EPA case. The Court agreed with the ISMA assertion that the Clean Air Act limits the EPA's authority to regulate snowmobile emissions and determined that the EPA is permitted to "rely on costs and other statutory standards to set standards."

Those standards, which were established in 2002, were set up with three phases intended to make the standards reasonable and technically feasible for the manufacturers to meet. Phase I standards are to be met in the 2006 model year, Phase II in the 2010 model year and Phase III in the 2012 model year.

The Court did "not view the standards adopted as facially unreasonable, and found no evidence in the record contradicting the Agency's ultimate decision," according to an ISMA news release.

The Court rejected the Bluewater Network's statutory challenges to the standards, saying that the EPA is not required to issue standards based on:
• A determination that a particular technology will be available
• Setting "standards at a level of stringency that would require discontinuation of all vehicles other than those satisfying 'basic demand'" or
• Issuing standards that require catalysts.

However, the Court did find that the EPA owes a more detailed explanation of how it arrived at the Phase III standards.

ISMA said in its release that the snowmobile manufacturers are happy with the Court's decision.