The Supreme Court docket’s June determination in West Virginia v. Environmental Safety Company was a shot throughout the bow of the executive state. The choice implicates many govt and unbiased companies’ rulemakings, however maybe none extra so than the Securities and Trade Fee’s proposed climate-disclosure rule. The proposal would convert the federal securities regulator right into a greenhouse-gas enforcer wanting over the shoulders of exchange-listed firms’ administrators. Very like the EPA regulation the justices struck down, the brand new SEC proposal would exceed the authority Congress granted to the company. If the SEC have been clever, it might rethink its rule, lest it face an identical destiny in court docket and see its rulemaking effort thrown into the regulatory waste bin.
Writing for a 6-3 majority in West Virginia, Chief Justice John Roberts invalidated the EPA’s Clear Energy Plan below the “main questions” doctrine, which limits an company’s energy to behave on problems with “financial and political significance” with out clear authorization from Congress.
