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The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in two related cases challenging a 40-year-old precedent that requires courts to defer to the judgment of federal agencies in administrative law cases. At the end of three-and-a-half hours of arguments, a majority seemed disposed to overturn Chevron vs. Natural Resources Defense Council, and consign the so-called "Chevron deference" principle to the compost heap of terrible Supreme Court precedents.Ever since the creation of the administrative state during the administration of our first socialist president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, federal agencies have assumed the authority to interpret federal statutes pretty much as they please. This became...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday is taking up challenges by commercial fishermen to a fee requirement that could achieve a long-sought goal of business and conservative interests: limiting a wide swath of government regulations. Billions of dollars are potentially at stake in front of a court that, like the rest of the federal judiciary, was remade during Donald Trump’s presidency by conservative interests that were motivated as much by weakening the regulatory state as social issues including abortion. Lawyers for the fishermen are asking the justices to overturn a 40-year-old decision that is among the most frequently cited high court...

When Justice John Paul Stephens issued his 1984 opinion in Chevron U.S.A. v. National Resources Defense Council, he started what legal scholar Gary Lawson later called “nothing less than a bloodless constitutional revolution.” At long last, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear two cases that may signal the beginning of the end to that revolution. Article I of the Constitution explicitly directs that “All legislative Power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,” not regulatory agencies. Yet Justice Stephens’ opinion found that “agenc[ies] may . . . properly rely upon the incumbent administration’s views...

The Biden administration is set to give Chevron Corp. a license to pump oil in Venezuela, according to The Wall Street Journal. As part of the deal, Chevron would retain partial control of both production and maintenance for a select set of run-down oil fields it previously had stakes in with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, a state-run oil company in Venezuela, according to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter.

SAN RAMON, Calif. & NEW YORK, October 23, 2023 — Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hess in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, or $171 per share based on Chevron’s closing price on October 20, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. The total enterprise value, including debt, of the transaction is $60 billion.

Family-run fishing businesses face a fraught and competitive environment, even independent of burdensome regulations. But one such outrageous regulation is now before the Supreme Court, in a case with significance far beyond our nation’s fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), part of the Department of Commerce, promulgated a rule that pertains to most herring boats, such as those portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie CODA. If a vessel is determined to need a federal monitor and has not already been assigned one under a federally funded program, it must pay for the monitor itself. The cost of doing that for...

The Supreme Court has scarcely filled its docket for the 2023-24 term, but it is already shaping up to a major term for administrative law. Among the cases accepted for next term with potentially significant implications for administrative law are the following: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America—Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that the statute providing funding to the CFPB violates the appropriations clause in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, and in vacating a regulation promulgated at a time when the Bureau was receiving such funding. (I wrote about the...

Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene plunged a House Homeland Security Committee hearing into chaos Wednesday by accusing Rep. Eric Swalwell of having a “sexual relationship with a Chinese spy” — leading Democrats to unsuccessfully demand that the remark be purged from the record. Greene (R-Ga.) made the comment moments after Swalwell accused her of “anti-police rhetoric” and showed a print-out of a tweet she wrote promoting “Defund the FBI” merchandise in response to purported bureau bias. “That was quite entertaining from someone that had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy — and everyone knows it,” Greene shot back, referring...

Wade was sentenced to five years in federal prison for the string of attacks carried out at the time he was out on bond for the Wendy's arson and wearing an ankle monitor.. A group of Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters were convicted on federal charges after attempting to frame the Proud Boys for a series of vandalism and arson attacks the far-left extremists carried out on Atlanta police vehicles and United States Postal Service property during the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. John Wesley Wade, 35, Ellie Melvin Brett, 37, and Vida Jones, 19, were arrested...

The new BLM rule introducing so-called conservation leasing will likely become the administration’s vehicle for locking up federal property. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to fundamentally reshape how public lands are managed without congressional approval. In March, the agency unveiled a sweeping proposal to establish a framework for “conservation leases” that places a newfound priority on preservation. The new Public Lands Rule presents a radical departure from the “multiple use mandate” Congress outlined for the agency in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). New Rules Are a ‘Game Changer’.. FLPMA requires federal lands...

The Bahrain-based U.S. fleet continues to monitor the situation in the Persian Gulf. Over the past two years, Iran has attacked, interfered with or harassed the navigational rights of 15 internationally flagged commercial vessels, U.S. officials have revealed. Late last month, Iran’s state television showed footage of the country’s navy commandos in a helicopter operation boarding the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet. The Turkish-operated, Chinese-owned tanker was reportedly bound for Houston, Texas carrying Kuwaiti crude oil for U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX). Iran claimed that the tanker collided with an unidentified Iranian vessel hours prior to its seizure, with...

Overruling Chevron won't gut the administrative state or even severely constrain it. But it could help strengthen the rule of law. Supreme Court decided to hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimando, a case that raises the prospect that the Court might overrule Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which requires federal judges to defer to administrative agencies' interpretations of federal laws, so long as Congress has not addressed the issue in question, and the agency's view is "reasonable." Some legal commentators are, depending on their ideology, excited or appalled by the prospect that Chevron might be overruled. Advocates of reversal...

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will hear a case that could significantly scale back federal agencies’ authority, with major implications for the future of environmental and other regulations. The justices next term will consider whether to overturn a decades-old precedent that grants agencies deference when Congress left ambiguity in a statute. Named for the court’s decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Chevron deference has become one of the most frequently cited precedents in administrative law since the decision was first handed down in 1984. It involves a two-step test: First, judges decide if Congress...

White House defends decision on easing Venezuela sanctions for oil Monday After the White House claimed that U.S. oil producers have "plenty of opportunities" to drill domestically, some executives are slamming the administration’s "completely inaccurate," "flat-out lie." "We've basically tracked about 125 specific actions that this administration and the Democratic Congress have done to slow down or stop oil production in America," American Energy Alliance President Tom Pyle said on "Varney & Co." Tuesday. "He has an 'America last' energy policy." When asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy why President Biden "would rather let U.S. companies drill for oil...

The night of the midterm election, another oil refinery, this one owned by Chevron and located in El Segundo, Calif., caught fire under mysterious circumstances. Firefighters were called to the scene, which was described as a “massive fire” – see the video below. Officials say they have no idea how the fire started. The next day, Reuters reported that the “isolated fire” occurred inside Chevron’s 269,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and is now extinguished. None of the facility’s “major processes units” were affected, the same report claimed. (Related: In September, numerous oil refineries in Ohio mysteriously caught fire and had to be...

A fire broke out at the El Segundo Chevron refinery Tuesday night. Firefighters were battling the stubborn blaze at 7 p.m. The refinery is located at 324 W El Segundo Blvd., and covers approximately 1,000 acres. It wasn't immediately clear what initially ignited the fire.

Chevron is selling its global headquarters in California as it continues to move its operations and employees to Texas, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The oil giant sold 92 acres of offices in San Ramon as its workers continue to relocate to its Houston campus, where it has three times the number of employees that California has, according to the WSJ. Chevron will follow in the footsteps of other large companies like Tesla and American Airlines that have left California in recent years for various reasons. (RELATED: Biden Threatens To Investigate Oil Companies If They Raise Gas Prices During...

The chairman and CEO of energy company Chevron has warned Americans to brace for price increases in natural gas this winter. CEO Mike Wirth made the comments in an interview with CNN on Sept. 13 in which he warned consumers that “there’s certainly a risk that costs will go up” when it comes to natural gas. “Prices already are very high relative to history and relative to the rest of the world. We’re already seeing this impact being felt in the European economy and I do think it’s likely that Europe goes into a recession,” Wirth said. Europe has been...

Some of the Democrats who have been spiking the ball in the end zone after the passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” probably didn’t read all of the finer details in the bill. They’ve been celebrating its passage along with Joe Biden as the “biggest climate legislation” to ever be passed. They have also been grudgingly thanking West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin for getting the bill over the finish line. But it turns out that Manchin snuck in a few items that haven’t drawn many headlines yet and the climate warriors aren’t going to be very happy about them....

SAN RAMON, California — Chevron intends to sell its vast headquarters campus in San Ramon, keep its head offices in the same East Bay city and shift jobs to Texas, a move that could deal a fresh blow to the Bay Area economy. The energy giant said it will cover relocation costs for some employees to move from San Ramon to Texas. “Chevron plans to sell our Chevron Park campus and move to new modern leased space in San Ramon,” the oil titan said in comments emailed to this news organization. ... “Chevron will remain headquartered in California, where the...