West Virginia’s “Major Questions” and the Silent Disappearance of the Chevron Doctrine

Authors

Hunter W. Collins

Library of Congress Authority File

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79122466.html

Document Type

Casenotes

Abstract

This Note analyzes the Court’s determination that an administrative agency’s action must be explicitly authorized under “clear congressional authorization” when it involves great “economic and political significance.” Part II of this Note provides a brief overview of the CAA and how the act has been used to cut GHG pollution. Part III examines the EPA’s focus on the power sector in particular, as well as the paths that differing presidential administrations have taken to provide a stable energy grid. Part IV discusses the litigation between West Virginia and the EPA, which resulted in the controversial 6–3 decision in the Supreme Court. Part V examines the impacts of this ruling on the administrative state for both environmental and administrative law. This Note ultimately questions the Court’s reluctance to follow, or even mention, Chevron’s deference to agency decision-making. Instead, the Supreme Court emphasizes “extraordinary cases”—in which the Court believes the “‘history and the breadth of the authority that [the agency] has asserted,’ and the ‘economic and political significance’ of that assertion, provide a ‘reason to hesitate before concluding that Congress’ meant to confer” power to an administrative agency.

Recommended Citation

Hunter W. Collins, West Virginia’s “Major Questions” and the Silent Disappearance of the Chevron Doctrine, 60 San Diego L. Rev. 777 (2023).
Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol60/iss4/4