Why Environmentalists Are So Worried About Trump's Supreme Court Pick

Neil Gorsuch was named Tuesday night as
 Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

For environmentalists worried about future Supreme Court decisions on climate change, the biggest difference between Donald Trump's nominee to the court and Barack Obama's boils down to one word, Chevron.

Neil Gorsuch, chosen by Trump to fill the vacancy of Antonin Scalia, is seen as a steadfast foe of the Chevron standard. That principle says courts should defer to federal regulatory agencies when the regulators are carrying out laws that are ambiguous. In contrast to Gorsuch, Merrick Garland, nominated last year by Obama but stymied by Senate Republicans, adhered closely to the standard.

Chevron is one of the pillars of modern regulatory law, and it matters greatly to climate change activists because it has provided the Environmental Protection Agency considerable leeway in using the Clean Air Act to control carbon dioxide pollution.

Read The Inside Climate News story - “Why Environmentalists Are So Worried About Trump's Supreme Court Pick.”