Supreme Court Chevron ruling has implications for Minnesota’s environment (2024)

Morning Edition

Cathy Wurzer and Matthew Alvarez

Supreme Court Chevron ruling has implications for Minnesota’s environment (1)

Like this?

Log in to share your opinion with MPR News and add it to your profile.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

This U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 Chevron ruling ended four decades of legal precedent in which courts deferred to federal agencies to interpret laws that they have to enforce.The reversal has broad implications for health, labor and the environment.

Leigh Currie, who worked as a special assistant attorney general when the state sued Exxon Mobil and is currently the director of strategic litigation for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, talked to MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about what this ruling could mean for Minnesota.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

How important was the Chevron doctrine?

It was really the foundation of what we call administrative law, which is law that affects any agency, including the Environmental Protection Agency. It answered the question of, “When in doubt, who gets the final say of what the law says and what it means?” For the last 40 years under the Chevron doctrine, that question was answered as, “the agencies.”

Support the News you Need

Gifts from individuals keep MPR News accessible to all - free of paywalls and barriers.

The agency that is administering the law in our case is the Environmental Protection Agency. If there’s any question of what the law means, the courts would defer to the expertise of the agency implementing the law.

The decision Friday overruled that, and flipped it on its head and said, “If there’s a law that’s not crystal clear in what it means, and the agency decides it means x and creates a rule, it’s actually then the courts that decide if what the agency did was the best decision.” What the law had been is: “Is it permissible? Is it allowable?” In which case, the courts had to let it stand. So it's a big deal to reverse that.

I’m wondering about some of the environmental stories we’re seeing here in Minnesota. Copper-nickel mining in the Boundary Waters, PFAS litigation and the new water filtration rules, Enbridge Line 3 — does this Supreme Court ruling shift the balance of any of those issues?

This Supreme Court decision will make it harder for environmental and other agencies to enact rules and use foundational laws that are 50 years old to address new emerging issues like PFAS and climate change.

These weren’t issues that are written into our Clean Water Act and our Clean Air Act. The EPA has been able to use those foundational laws to do what it can to address these emerging issues. These cases (and really it’s been a string of cases that has been chipping away at EPA’s ability to do its job) will really affect its ability to address these new and emerging issues.

As an environmental attorney, what are the long range implications for the state of Minnesota with this particular ruling?

There are projects, like proposed mines or oil pipelines, that need both state and federal permits. There may be some implications long-term in how stringent the federal permits are for these types of projects.

Second, federal laws set the floor — the bare minimum — of what states need to do under, say, the Clean Water Act. And states can go above and beyond that, and Minnesota often does, and it has some pretty good environmental laws.

But this shift will mean that the bare-minimum requirements might not ever improve or could even backslide. These standards that are met by neighboring states that don’t have strong state laws like Minnesota are going to stay low. And as you know, pollution doesn’t stop at state lines.

That’s the whole premise ofanother Supreme Court decision that came out last week, which was called the Good Neighbor rule that they put on hold.

Minnesota long-term is at the mercy of the political will of neighbors to stop burning coal or emitting other harmful pollutants that travel into our state. We might not have, going forward, the help from the federal government that we’ve had in the past.

As an environmental attorney, does this make your job a lot harder? Will you be busier?

It changes how we will approach cases. If the agencies have created a rule that if they follow the procedures, it’s allowed by the statute, we can kind of assume that the courts are going to uphold that. It's definitely going to change how we can approach those assumptions.

Now there’s a lot more uncertainty in how courts will view agency decisions. It definitely won’t make us busier, because we’re already kind of as busy as we could be. There’s no shortage of environmental issues to work on. And that will definitely continue.We’ll stay busy trying to protect Minnesotans and their health and the environment.

  • Can wolf haters and wolf lovers talk without howling?
  • Morning Announcements for July 8
  • After June’s floods, health concerns surface in northeastern Minnesota
Supreme Court Chevron ruling has implications for Minnesota’s environment (2024)

FAQs

What does the Supreme Court Chevron decision mean for environmental rules? ›

Natural Resources Defense Council. Under the Chevron doctrine, if Congress had not directly addressed the question at the center of a dispute, a court was required to uphold the agency's interpretation of the statute as long as it was reasonable.

What are the implications of the Chevron ruling? ›

The end of Chevron deference means that a court must now decide whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority in issuing the regulations and, even if it has, may not defer to an agency's interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.

What was the Supreme Court decision on the Chevron case? ›

The U.S. Supreme Court held that Chevron was overruled. Writing for the six-justice majority,15 Chief Justice Roberts reasoned that judicial deference to agency rulemaking under Chevron was incompatible with the courts' fundamental duty to interpret the law.

Is Chevron still a good law? ›

In a 6-3 opinion, with the majority authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court vacated both of those cases and overruled Chevron. The Court held that Chevron was inconsistent with both the constitutional obligation of courts to say what the law is, and with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

How does Chevron affect the environment? ›

In 2019 Chevron's disclosed emissions amounted to 697 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It is estimated the company's total planned emissions from 2018 to 2030 will account for 1.3% of the global 1.5C carbon budget.

What does the new Chevron law mean? ›

1. What is Chevron Deference, and Why Was It Important? Since 1984's Chevron decision, courts have been instructed to defer to federal agencies as they interpreted ambiguous laws passed by Congress, so long as their interpretation is reasonable.

What are the benefits of the Chevron Doctrine? ›

Claim: Chevron deference is better than a case-by-case approach. This claim means that when judges follow the deference rules outlined in the Chevron decision, there will be more stability, accountability, and political participation than if judges follow a less-precise rule about when to defer to agency decisions.

How does the Chevron ruling impact healthcare? ›

The anticipated impact of this ruling includes legal challenges to regulations, a slower rulemaking process, diminished federal ability to develop new programs or innovations, or impose new requirements such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service's (CMS) minimum-staffing requirements for nursing homes, EPA ...

What does Chevron being overturned mean? ›

Loper squarely overruled Chevron. The decision dramatically reduces deference to the agency and places on courts the obligation to determine fully independently whether an agency's actions are consistent with the words of the statute and intent of Congress.

Does Chevron apply to states? ›

If it is clear or even implied in the standard that courts will be bound to an agency's interpretation if it is reasonable and the statute is ambiguous, the state is categorized in the Chevron type.

Does the Chevron ruling affect the ATF? ›

The Loper Bright ruling could effectively paralyze the ATF's rulemaking authority by exposing a wide array of rules and regulations to court challenges. “One thing overturning Chevron does is encourage litigation,” Winkler said. “It's going to open the floodgates for any regulation to be challenged.

What agencies are affected by Chevron? ›

Several federal agencies addressing the workplace may be impacted by the Court's decision, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Is Chevron good or bad? ›

Chevron Corporation has been one of the most widely-criticized companies in the world, mostly stemming from its activities and involving climate change.

Who is Chevron owned by? ›

Chevron Corporation
Chevron's former headquarters complex in San Ramon, California
OwnerBerkshire Hathaway (8.17%)
Number of employees45,600 (December 2023)
ParentStandard Oil Co. (1900–1911)
SubsidiariesChevron Phillips Chemical Chevron Sri Lanka
21 more rows

What is the Chevron decision in 2024? ›

Raimondo, decided on 28 June 2024, fundamentally reshapes administrative law, eliminating the requirement that courts defer to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

What does the overturn of Chevron mean? ›

Loper squarely overruled Chevron. The decision dramatically reduces deference to the agency and places on courts the obligation to determine fully independently whether an agency's actions are consistent with the words of the statute and intent of Congress.

What does the end of Chevron deference mean? ›

Under this post-Chevron framework, Congress retains the ability to delegate authority to federal agencies expressly, but it must clearly define the scope of that authority. Courts will honor such delegations when explicitly stated but will no longer infer delegation from statutory silence or ambiguity.

What does the Chevron ruling mean for the ATF? ›

This doctrine established a test for administrative law that gave Federal agencies (like the ATF) much of their power. Essentially, the Chevron Defense applies to situations where existing laws are ambiguously worded. In those situations, agencies were allowed to interpret laws themselves.

Does the Chevron decision affect the IRS? ›

Potential impacts on US tax regulations. In the tax context, the Supreme Court's decision to overrule Chevron may result in more legal challenges regarding Treasury and the IRS's interpretation of Code sections.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Chrissy Homenick

Last Updated:

Views: 5533

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (74 voted)

Reviews: 89% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Chrissy Homenick

Birthday: 2001-10-22

Address: 611 Kuhn Oval, Feltonbury, NY 02783-3818

Phone: +96619177651654

Job: Mining Representative

Hobby: amateur radio, Sculling, Knife making, Gardening, Watching movies, Gunsmithing, Video gaming

Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.