Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
The Supreme Court begins a new term next week with cases that could ripple through the energy and climate space.
Why it matters: The conservative court has taken aim at environmental regulations and this year struck down the Chevron doctrine that allowed federal agencies deference to interpret vague statutes.
What we're watching: A case to settle whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can permit a privately owned temporary nuclear waste storage site over Texas' opposition.
- Another case involves whether the EPA's denial of Renewable Fuel Standard exemption petitions filed by small refineries are D.C. Circuit for challenges to "nationally applicable" EPA actions that belong in the D.C. Circuit.
The court may also decide soon on requests to the court's "shadow docket" from industry groups seeking to halt three recent EPA standards:
- Carbon rules for power plants in West Virginia v. EPA
- Methane curbs on oil and gas operations in Oklahoma v. EPA
- Mercury and air toxics rules for coal power plants in NACCO v. EPA.
What they're saying: A stay in any of those shadow docket cases would show further "deep hostility to the traditional and well-established authorities to use the Clean Air Act to protect the health and welfare of the American people, as well as hostility to the precedent of rare emergency stays," the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a memo to reporters.
