Your argument next in case 23, 1067, Oklahoma versus the Environmental Protection Agency,

Mr. Mancing, Honey.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.

EPA actions to approve or disapprove State implementation plans are the prototypical action

reviewed in the Regional Circuit.

As I believe, Mr. Stewart confirmed in the previous argument, all parties agree at this point

that if EPA had disapproved Oklahoma's and Utah's plans in separate Federal Register

notices, those would be locally applicable actions.

So when it comes to applicability, the only disputed question is whether the

disapprovals of these state plans are transformed into a single national action because EPA

chose to process and publish them together with the disapprovals of 19 other states.

But the text of the Act's venue provision directs the courts to look at the statutory authority under

which EPA took its action, not the form of publication. Here, Section 7410 authorizes

EPA to take local action, approval or disapproval of state implementation plans. EPA's position

that the form of publication dictates the action's applicability for venue purposes, has no basis in the text of the statute, and indeed is at war with it.

That leaves EPA's backup, that the Oklahoma and Utah disapproval actions must be reviewed in the D.C. Circuit because they are based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect.

That exception, however, only applies to actions where EPA arrives at a generic conclusion

that applies uniformly to all states and that forms a dispositive reason for the agency's

action irrespective of local factors.

As Justice Gorsuch's and Kavanaugh's questions earlier today indicate EPA's reading, applying that exception anytime EPA articulates a rubric or a standard and then applies it to a local circumstance would mean essentially every local EPA action is one that is based on a nationwide determination.

The Court should reverse the decision below and send

this case back to the Tenth Circuit. I welcome the Court's questions.

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