Chevron Decision and NW Forest Plan

From The Oregonian today….

How a Supreme Court decision could reignite Oregon’s biggest environmental battles

Excerpts:

Since the Pacific Northwest’s “timber wars” of the 1990s, the federal Northwest Forest Plan has managed conservation and logging interests in regional forests.

The plan was formulated by a team of scientists from several fields, tailoring their rules to mandates from Congress. The Forest Service announced earlier this year that it was looking to update those rules to meet the growing challenges of wildfire and climate change.

But Oregon environmental advocates say those rules, among many others issued by federal regulatory agencies, could now come under threat. The Supreme Court late last month overturned what’s known as the Chevron decision, a longstanding precedent that lower federal courts should defer to agencies — staffed by experts — on “reasonable” rule changes to enforce legislation.

The ruling effectively means federal regulators will have a harder time defending those rule changes in court. It could also make existing rules easier to challenge.

…

Daniel Rohlf, a professor of wildlife law at Lewis & Clark Law School, said the reversal of Chevron could be compounded by another lesser-noticed ruling last month — Corner Post Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

He said that previously, there was a six-year statute of limitations for challenging federal regulation, beginning when the regulation was implemented. But now, the six-year clock starts when the regulation begins to affect the entity mounting the challenge.

Rohlf said this means old rules could be opened up for litigation. And he expects future challenges could throw a wrench in an already overworked legal system.

“It’s sort of a full employment act for administrative law practitioners,” he said.