Tag: Supreme Court

Chevron Deference in Its Last Days?

Jane Thomas ●

In recent years, a string of cases has been brought before the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) challenging the Chevron doctrine, which states that courts should defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute as long as that interpretation is reasonable. Despite the numerous cases that have come before SCOTUS, the Court has never taken the step to overturn the landmark decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. This approach could change this year with already one case set to be heard in the fall term, as well as another petition for certiorari pending before the Court.

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Sackett v. EPA: SCOTUS Clarifies “the Waters of the United States” and Narrows the Reach of the Clean Waters Act

Michael C. Lupton ●

On May 25, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) issued a decision, Sackett v. EPA, which dramatically curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) authority to regulate certain wetlands under the Clean Waters Act (“CWA” or the “Act”).

The CWA, enacted in 1972, has been the primary federal law regulating water pollution in the United States for over half a century. The Act is generally enforced by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers and has indisputably been effective in regulating water pollution in the United States.

The Act prohibits the discharge of pollutants into “navigable waters,” which it defines as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.” 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a), 1362(7), (12)(A) (2018 ed.). However, since the Act’s inception, the meaning of this definition has been ambiguous and constantly evolving. Moreover, the Act broadly defines “pollutants” to include not only traditional notions of pollutants, but also more mundane materials like rock, sand, and dirt. 33 U.S.C. § 1362(6). The penalties for violating the CWA, negligently or knowingly, are often very severe, and include criminal charges or civil fines of over $60,000 per day for each violation.

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Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Authority under the Clean Air Act

Margaret Anne Hill, Frank L. Tamulonis III, and Stephen C. Zumbrun ●


After seven years, three presidential administrations, and two appearances before the Supreme Court, the Obama Administration’s “Clean Power Plan” (“CPP”)—a Clean Air Act regulation designed to limit carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants (and later revised by the Trump-era “Affordable Clean Energy” (“ACE”) rule)—was struck down by the Supreme Court on June 30, 2022. See West Virginia et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al., No. 20-1530.

Relying on Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) CPP set a carbon emission limit that was essentially unattainable for existing coal-fired power plants. Consequently, EPA determined that the “best system of emission reduction” for carbon from these plants was to cause a “generation shift” from higher carbon emitting coal-fired sources to lower-emitting sources, such as natural gas plants or wind or solar energy facilities. Compliance with the CPP would have required a plant operator to: (1) reduce the amount of electricity the plant generated to reduce the plant’s carbon emissions; (2) build a new natural gas plant, wind farm, or solar installation, or invest in someone else’s existing facility and increase generation there; or (3) purchase emission allowances as part of a cap-and-trade regime. See West Virginia at 8.

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