Note:
D.C. Toedt III, State Checks and Balances as Essentials of Sovereignty in Clean Air Act Rulemaking, 59 Texas L. Rev. 3 (1981).
 

Abstract:
When the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approves a state formulated Clean Air Act implementation plan, the plan acquires the force of federal law as well as state law and is subsequently enforceable in federal court. To prevent states from buckling under political pressure and slowly dismantling their plans piece by piece, the Act requires the EPA to approve not only the original plan but also any additional changes to the plan before it can take effect. In acknowledgment of that stipulation of the Act, some federal courts refuse to recognize changes to state plans even when they result from a state court’s determination that a promulgating state agency acted beyond its legal authority. In this note Toedt suggests that a federal court that disregards state judicial review unconstitutionally disrupts the state court’s work of interpreting state law and guaranteeing state agency accountability. More generally, he asserts that that the federal government cannot tamper with a state’s structure of checks and balances in pursuit of a national interest. Toedt begins with a broad overview of the history of federal pollution control statutes. He then examines the processes by which state-promulgated regulations acquire federal status to determine if state judicial review is necessary to ensure state agency accountability. He concludes that, under any approach, the Constitution and the Act itself require federal courts to defer to a state court’s invalidation of state plan formulation.