A federal appeals court on Thursday weighed the gas industry’s challenge to the Biden administration’s efficiency standards for gas-powered commercial water heaters and consumer furnaces.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not clearly show its hand on how it would rule on the lawsuit brought by the American Gas Association and other groups to challenge the Department of Energy standards. But Judge Neomi Rao floated the idea that the agency’s explanation for its rulemaking was more vulnerable after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright v. Raimondo.
The June court decision axed Chevron deference, a legal theory that for 40 years had directed courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws. Rao, a Trump pick, noted that throughout DOE’s briefs in the case, there was a reliance on judicial deference to the agency’s expertise.
“But after Loper Bright, we have to focus more on the best meaning of the statute,” she said.
