Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law
Abstract
The Supreme Court, for the first time, elevated economic calculation to function as the fulcrum leveraging and allocating law-making power between the branches of government.
The federal agency regulation before the Supreme Court was estimated by the agency to impose approximately $9.6 billion in costs annually on the U.S. economy, to realize direct public benefits of $4-5 million annually. This is approximately a 2,000:1 negative cost/direct benefit ratio, before counting indirect ‘co-benefits.’ There is now new pressure to “change the math” by which the agency performs the now-required cost consideration. Incidental ‘co-benefits,’ if allowed to be considered, change the result.
This closely divided Supreme Court decision changes Chevron deference previously routinely afforded pursuant to this most-cited administrative decision in U.S. history. Every aspect of this new regulatory frontier is a matter of first impression for the Court.
First Page
119
Last Page
177
Publication Date
2018
Recommended Citation
Steven Ferrey, Mind the Gap: Supreme Court Contraction of Legal Discretion for the Executive Branch, 13 Tex. J. of Oil, Gas, and Energy L. 143 (2018).
Creative Commons License
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