Your task is to make an argument regarding whether the bubble regulation was a reasonable interpretation of the term "stationary source" in the Clean Air Act. The issue here is what makes an administrative agency's interpretation of terms in an Act the agency is implementing reasonable. Using the structure of IRAC

Does the Clean Air Act permit the EPA to define the term "stationary source" to mean whole industrial plants only, which allows plants to build or modify units within plants without the permit required under the Act?

References provided to answer the question:

Yes. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for a unanimous court, reversed. The Supreme Court held that the bubble regulation was a reasonable interpretation of the term "stationary source" in the Clean Air Act. Congress did not have a specific intention for the interpretation of that term, and the EPA's regulation was a reasonable policy choice. The regulation also provided reasonable accommodations for the many competing interests affected by the Act. Justices Thurgood Marshall, William H. Rehnquist, and Sandra Day O'Connor did not participate.

Rules

1. If the legislature has given authority to an agency to enforce a statute, then interpretation of that statute by the agency is given great deference by the courts.
2. If the agency's decision has a rational basis it will be upheld by the court at the time of judicial review.
3. courts will give considerable weight to agency's interpretation of a statute only if it satisfies the following four conditions:

• Legislature must have delegated the agency with the responsibility to administer the concerned statute;
• The interpretation must be a reasonable one;
• The specific issue cannot be determined from the plain statutory language; and
• Presence of rationales underlying the rule of deference.