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Three rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency over the last year aimed to rein in pollution at coal-fired plants, industrial facilities and in the nation性视界传媒檚 drinking water supply 性视界传媒� all areas of particular concern for East Texas where industrial pollution is linked to a number of negative health effects.

The fate of those rules and many others are up in the air following two back-to-back Supreme Court decisions in June and July that diminish the authority of federal agencies.

The twin court decisions broadly expose federal regulations to legal challenges by their opponents, including regulations that could mitigate risks from dirty air and water in East Texas, according to legal experts.

With a six-to-three vote in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case in June, justices dismantled a 40-year-old legal doctrine called Chevron deference that arose from a 1984 court case involving the oil company. The doctrine meant courts deferred to the expertise of federal agencies so long as they provided 性视界传媒渞easonable interpretations性视界传媒� of vague statutes under their purview.

In other words, the branch of the government best equipped to assess thorny questions about drug safety, pollution limits, or endangered species were the agencies created by Congress to manage those areas, according to the doctrine. Some 18,000 prior court decisions cited Chevron.

性视界传媒淸The Loper decision] gives courts the power to make all manner of scientific and technical judgments,性视界传媒� Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the dissenting opinion for the case. 性视界传媒淚t puts courts at the apex of the administrative process as to every conceivable subject.性视界传媒�

Major industries and conservative activists had long chafed against the doctrine because it was said to impose costly regulations on business that were difficult to roll back. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in 2019 that the Supreme Court should 性视界传媒減ut [Chevron] out of its misery性视界传媒� because courts too often relinquished their power to 性视界传媒渦nelected federal bureaucrats.性视界传媒�

Forty-two trade groups, including the American Chemistry Council, of which Eastman Chemical Co. is a member, to President Joe Biden for a pause on all federal rule-making in light of Chevron性视界传媒檚 demise.

Eastman was a target of a recent EPA rule that aimed to reduce the emissions of cancer causing gasses from its facilities around Texas and its plant just outside Longview. That rule came with an estimated in industry-wide compliance costs.

Justices followed up the Loper decision with another on the Corner Post, inc. v. Board of Governors case in early July that effectively eliminates the statute of limitation for challenging agency regulations. Previously, federal rules were insulated from legal challenges after six years of their introduction. Whether a rule was believed to help businesses or encumber them, the six-year limit created a measure of stability around what agency guidelines to follow.

Bridging the gulf between detractors and supporters of the Supreme Court性视界传媒檚 decisions is a shared sense of uncertainty about how industry, agencies and lower courts will proceed with so many rules now subject to potential change.

Litigation challenging multiple federal rules have been filed in the weeks following the twin rulings.

The three high-profile EPA rules that were poised to make an impact on East Texas air and water quality 性视界传媒� potentially imposing steep costs on specific industries and utilities 性视界传媒� are in legal limbo.

PFAS regulations in choppy water

The EPA finalized a rule in April mandating water utilities around the country begin monitoring and filtering out a family of hazardous chemicals called PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that have been found in drinking water supplies across the nation.

Commonly known as 性视界传媒渇orever chemicals性视界传媒� because of their extreme persistence in the environment as well as human bodies, PFAS are not just a growing concern to public health officials, but for water utilities, too. The chemicals are unusually tough to detect and remove from water, and the equipment required to do so can come with a serious price tag.

As the News-Journal reported last year, some rural East Texas water utilities feared the rule would require the installation of expensive plant upgrades if PFAS contamination was found.

性视界传媒淚 think the PFAS drinking water standards are one of the first big cases where you will see how the Loper decision is being applied,性视界传媒� said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

性视界传媒淭hese decisions will open everything up to more and more lawsuits,性视界传媒� Whitehouse said. Specific to PFAS and the end of Chevron deference, the EPA性视界传媒檚 authority to consider which contaminants 性视界传媒渕ay have adverse health effects性视界传媒� under the Safe Drinking Water Act is just one example of the sort of broad mandates once entrusted to agency experts that could see challenges in court.

One such lawsuit was brought against the EPA in June by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the American Water Works Association. The two water utility groups claimed that the maximum level of PFAS contamination laid out in the rule 性视界传媒� four parts per trillion 性视界传媒� was practically unfeasible to comply with.

Whitehouse does not predict a wholesale collapse of environmental and public health regulations resulting from the Loper and Corner Post decisions, but he does see a future where strict standards are upheld in some places and loosened in others.

性视界传媒淚 think many of these questions will devolve to the states, and a patchwork of rules is a real possibility,性视界传媒� Whitehouse said. How regulations fair in court will depend on the particular judges overseeing a case.

Even if the PFAS rule survives intact, its most expensive mandate 性视界传媒� a requirement to install filters where contamination is found 性视界传媒� would not apply to some East Texas communities.

Results from two recent PFAS tests in East Texas came up clean. The city of Tyler monitored for 29 PFAS variants in 2023 and only discovered trace amounts of one compound that was still below the maximum contamination level.

The small community of Hughes Springs in Cass and Marion counties also failed to detect any of the chemicals, according to Dominik Sobieraj, chief operating officer at the Northeast Texas Municipal Water Authority.

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The city of Longview said its test data should arrive sometime this year.

EPA coal plant rules unlikely to stick; market forces could close plants anyway

A laundry list of EPA rules for America性视界传媒檚 coal-fired plants were packaged and finalized in April, mandating a rapid drawdown in greenhouse gasses in addition to controls on heavy metal and toxic air pollution.

Though only two coal burning plants remain in East Texas 性视界传媒� the result of a market-driven transition to natural gas and renewable energy 性视界传媒� the long-term effect of those pollution rules could be significant in the Piney Woods. The country性视界传媒檚 dirtiest coal-fired plant is at Martin Creek Lake State Park, 15 miles from Longview in Tatum.

Pollution from Luminant-owned Martin Lake Power Plant was linked to 195 premature deaths per year between from 1999-2020, according to a 2023 study published in Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal. The plant is a leading source of mercury, sulfur dioxide and fine particulate matter pollution.

However, David Spence, a University of Texas at Austin professor of natural resources law, said the EPA coal rules faced a host of legal hurdles before the Loper decision was finalized.

性视界传媒淚 think that rule would have had a tough go even if Chevron had not been overturned, in part because there were a lot of statutory questions with how the agency interpreted the Clean Air Act,性视界传媒� Spence said.

From the perspective of the coal-fired energy business, the rule threatened the stability of the energy grid at a time when states like Texas are struggling with a of power outages.

Compliance costs for the carbon capture component of the EPA coal rules was estimated to top $10 billion, according to a 2024 court filing by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Conservative attorney generals from 25 states, including Texas, have sued the EPA to stop one of the coal rules related to hazardous pollutants such as mercury.

Don Hall, the former mayor of Tatum, and other East Texas residents demanding relief from coal plant pollution may have to wait for the energy market, rather than federal regulations, to see improvements to their air quality.

性视界传媒淐oal性视界传媒檚 time is passing,性视界传媒� Spence said. 性视界传媒淭he market will get rid of it if the regulations don性视界传媒檛.性视界传媒�

Rule targeting Eastman pollution challenged on two fronts

Eastman性视界传媒檚 sprawling plant on the outskirts of Longview was one of 200-plus chemical plants in the U.S. required in April to reduce cancerous air emissions by the EPA.

The plant is the Longview area性视界传媒檚 second-largest employer and is one of 14 sites in the country where a gas called ethylene oxide is produced. Ethylene oxide exposure is linked to breast cancer, stomach cancer, lymphoma and leukemia in fenceline communities living near plants.

While the EPA was aware of the cancer risk emanating from the Eastman facility as far back as the 1980s, the 2024 rule was the first attempt by federal regulators to enforce strict limits on ethylene oxide emissions.

Two challenges to the rule arrived after the demise of the Chevron doctrine: one which claims the rule goes too far and another arguing it does not go far enough.

The American Chemistry Council, a trade group representing Eastman, petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in July to review the ethylene oxide rule. The council has fought the EPA性视界传媒檚 risk assessment of ethylene oxide since 2016, when the agency determined it to be far more cancerous than previously thought.

But another legal challenge filed by environmental and clean air groups on the same day argued the EPA is still underestimating the amount of pollution at chemical plants, most of which are concentrated in Texas and Louisiana.

Their argument was bolstered by a peer-reviewed study published a month earlier. Researchers examining ethylene oxide concentrations in Louisiana性视界传媒檚 Gulf Coast industrial communities found the pollutant at levels nine times higher than those modeled by the EPA. Some plumes were detected more than 6 miles from the nearest facility.

Moreover, an attorney representing one of the environmental groups that brought the petition against the EPA性视界传媒檚 rule believes there could be a 性视界传媒渟ilver lining性视界传媒� to the Loper decision.

性视界传媒淭here are a lot of cases I性视界传媒檝e worked on over the years where we性视界传媒檝e challenged agency action and we don性视界传媒檛 necessarily like the fact that they get deference. We want the court to look critically at what the EPA did,性视界传媒� Abel Russ, a lawyer with the Environmental Integrity Project, told .

A third challenge to the EPA性视界传媒檚 ability to assess the risk of ethylene oxide demonstrated how confusing the future of federal regulations could get.

The D.C. Circuit Court sided with the EPA in August, delivering a defeat to the Paxton-supported attempt to weaken agency risk assessments of the chemical.

性视界传媒淚n the case of EPA性视界传媒檚 evaluation of scientific data within its area of expertise, we accord an extreme degree of deference,性视界传媒� the majority opinion read.