Environmental Protection Agency wants to reconsider smog rules blocked by Supreme Court

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked federal judges to allow it to reconsider a package of smog-control regulations blocked by the Supreme Court earlier this summer.

In a motion filed late Monday, agency officials asked for a voluntary stay of the “good neighbor” rule after the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 stay in June that the EPA had failed to reasonably explain how the new requirements would remain cost-effective if they covered fewer states than originally anticipated.

“Accordingly, EPA believes that the most effective course of action is to address this potential error now,” the agency said in its filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

If the court agrees to refer the case, the EPA expects the review to be completed by the end of November, at which point litigation on the rule’s validity could resume, the motion says.