Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority and Combustion Engineering v. The United States Environmental Protection Agency

By a stroke of legal legerdemain, the panel majority has divested the district court of its jurisdiction over an original action for declaratory and injunctive relief by conjuring the illusion that an equivocal, advisory letter from the Environmental Protection Agency constituted a final agency order reviewable only in this court pursuant to section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7607(b)(1) (section 307(b)(1)). Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

The majority’s opinion correctly notes that judicial review of all final actions of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection…