{"id":13030,"date":"2022-07-08T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=13030"},"modified":"2025-02-07T15:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T20:44:21","slug":"supreme-court-limits-agencys-statutory-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/supreme-court-limits-agencys-statutory-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Limits Agency\u2019s Statutory Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.listnr.tech\/embed\/voiceover\/62cc4932a29bfb001d7f55f0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"165\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On June 30, the Supreme Court\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/21pdf\/20-1530_n758.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0082c0;\">issued its decision\u00a0<\/span><\/a>in\u00a0West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0(EPA). Writing for a 6-3 majority, Chief Justice Roberts held that the Clean Air Act did not give the EPA authority to enact the Clean Power Plan, which would reduce the percentage of coal and natural gas power plants and increase the use of renewable energy. This shift from coal and natural gas to renewable energy was the largest, recent effort to address climate change and would require plant operators to build or invest in new or existing renewable energy sources, with some changes required by 2030. The opinion marks the first articulation by the court of the Major Questions Doctrine. \u201cUnder that doctrine\u2026 a clear statement is necessary for a court to conclude that Congress intended to delegate authority \u2018of this breadth to regulate a fundamental sector of the economy.\u2019\u201d The Court held, in this case, that the authority the EPA was claiming through the Clean Power Plan was too broad after considering the statute granting them authority to regulate certain pollutants from existing sources in the Clean Air Act. Justice Gorsuch joined the majority but wrote a separate concurrence to discuss how the major questions doctrine is also essential to maintain the separation of powers required by the Constitution. Justices Kagan, Breyer, and Sotomayor dissent, saying the Court \u201cstrips the [EPA] of the power Congress gave it to respond to \u2018the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The dissenting justices explain that Congress gives broad delegation purposefully: \u201cso an agency can respond, appropriately and commensurately, to new and big problems.\u201d Some commentators have\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0082c0;\"><a style=\"color: #0082c0;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.venable.com\/insights\/publications\/2022\/07\/scotus-limits-epa-authority-to-regulate?utm_source=vuture&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20220705%20-%20scotus%20limits%20epa%20authority%20to%20regulate%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggested\u00a0<\/a><\/span>that the opinion invites more litigation challenging agency authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> On June 30, the Supreme Court\u00a0issued its decision\u00a0in\u00a0West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0(EPA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[716],"class_list":["post-13030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","tag-tag-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}