{"id":263262,"date":"2025-05-30T02:33:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T02:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/cutting-back-the-nepa-judicial-oak\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T02:33:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T02:33:05","slug":"cutting-back-the-nepa-judicial-oak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262","title":{"rendered":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

It seems that the death of Chevron <\/em>deference was not the end of agency deference. Almost a year after striking down Chevron <\/em>deference, today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the role of judicial deference towards an agency\u2019s fact and scope determinations. In an opinion penned by Justice Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (the \u201cBoard\u201d) rightfully excluded the environmental effects of upstream oil drilling and downstream oil refining when approving the construction of an 88-mile railroad line in Utah. Seven Cnty. Infrastructure Coal. v. Eagle Cnty., Colorado<\/em>, 605 U. S. ____ (2025). Contrary to the D.C. Circuit\u2019s decision, which found that the Board was required to evaluate these impacts, the Supreme Court held that the railway project\u2019s Environmental Impact Statement (\u201cEIS\u201d) complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (\u201cNEPA\u201d) requirements, focusing on the procedural nature of NEPA and the \u201ctextually mandated focus on the proposed action<\/strong>.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the strong language in the opinion, likening NEPA to an overgrown \u201cjudicial oak that has hindered infrastructure development under the guise of just a little more process,\u201d and demanding \u201ccourse correction,\u201d[2]<\/a> the decision still leaves open questions on scoping of EIS. The Court aligned some guiderails stating: \u201cA relatively modest infrastructure project should not be turned into a scapegoat for everything that ensues from upstream oil drilling to downstream refinery emissions.\u201d[3]<\/a> But the Court also recognized that in certain circumstances, other projects may be interrelated enough in time or place to require consideration.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the gray area in defining the project, the Court is leaving the decision to the agencies stating:<\/p>\n

\n

When assessing significant environmental effects and feasible alternatives for purposes of NEPA, an agency will invariably make a series of fact-dependent, context-specific, and policy-laden choices about the depth and breadth of its inquiry\u2014and also about the length, content, and level of detail of the resulting EIS. Courts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness<\/strong>.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thus, the Court is signaling a retreat from judicial interference in the scoping of a project under NEPA and voiced overall skepticism with the way NEPA has been interpreted in the past. Projects may draw parallels to this decision to justify the exclusion of upstream and downstream oil and gas impacts in their respective evaluations.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, last June the Supreme Court ended Chevron<\/em> deference in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo<\/em>, 603 U.S. 369 (2024), which focused on an agency\u2019s interpretation of legal ambiguities in federal statutes, which the Court held would now be subject to de novo<\/em> review. In contrasting this case and Loper Bright<\/em>, Justice Kavanaugh explained that while NEPA requires an EIS to be \u201cdetailed,\u201d and it is the Court\u2019s power to interpret the meaning of \u201cdetailed\u201d (under Loper Bright<\/em>), what details need to be included in an EIS is a question of fact that warrants deference to the agency. \u201cThe agency is better equipped to assess what facts are relevant to the agency\u2019s own decision than a court is.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kean Miller environmental regulatory and industrial project teams are closely monitoring the impacts of this decision on currently pending EIS and developing projects.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Decision at p. 16 (internal citation omitted, emphasis added).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Decision at p. 13.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Decision at p. 19.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Decision at p. 12 (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Decision at p. 10.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that the death of Chevron deference was not the end of agency deference. Almost a year after striking down Chevron deference, today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the role of judicial deference towards an agency\u2019s fact and scope determinations. In an opinion penned by Justice Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[3666,13232,94450,2362],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-263262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-cutting","tag-judicial","tag-nepa","tag-oak"],"yoast_head":"\nCutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems that the death of Chevron deference was not the end of agency deference. Almost a year after striking down Chevron deference, today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the role of judicial deference towards an agency\u2019s fact and scope determinations. In an opinion penned by Justice Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\"},\"wordCount\":569,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Cutting\",\"Judicial\",\"NEPA\",\"Oak\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\",\"name\":\"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network","og_description":"It seems that the death of Chevron deference was not the end of agency deference. Almost a year after striking down Chevron deference, today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the role of judicial deference towards an agency\u2019s fact and scope determinations. In an opinion penned by Justice Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak","datePublished":"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262"},"wordCount":569,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png","keywords":["Cutting","Judicial","NEPA","Oak"],"articleSection":["Legal"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262","name":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png","datePublished":"2025-05-30T02:33:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/f3e93929b5caea7afc0b323a4209c5638755a995.png","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=263262#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cutting Back the NEPA Judicial Oak"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/263263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263262"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=263262"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=263262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}