President Donald Trump has named his nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. Neil Gorsuch is a federal appellate judge for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Much has already been written, and will be written in the future, about Gorsuch's fitness for the Court and the politics of placing him there. For followers of the environmental issues surrounding the Mississippi River, Gorsuch's skepticism of Chevron deference is worth noting. This doctrine calls for courts to defer to agency interpretations of statutes mandating an agency to take some action. Chevron deference has been a key factor in defending agency actions taken on behalf of improving environmental conditions in the Mississippi basin and across the country.
One of the agencies that has been bound by Chevron, the EPA, is one step closer to having an Administrator. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was voted out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee so that he may now be considered for confirmation by the entire Senate. Committee Democrats, led by ranking member Tom Carper of Delaware, boycotted the hearing for the second day in a row in an attempt to keep Chairman John Barrasso from being able to send the nomination to the floor. However, Barrasso suspended the committee's rules, allowing the majority to vote without any members of the minority present, and the nomination was passed through the committee. Pruitt has the votes to be confirmed by Republicans on the Senate floor.
The House and Senate have both voted to kill the Obama administration's Stream Protection Rule and President Trump has promised to sign the legislation. The rule was designed to protect waterways from some of the effects of coal mining and held mines accountable for materials that found their way into streams during mining process. The rule took seven years for the Obama administration to craft, and less than a month to be rolled back. Hardly the only environmental protection in the crosshairs of the new Congress and Trump administration, the Stream Protection Rule will likely share a fate with the Clean Water Rule and Clean Power Plan if Congressional Republicans have their way.
