Howard Kenison was a moderator for the ABA SEER’s 32nd Fall Conference panel to review the challenges and opportunities shaping environment, energy, and resources law.
The 32nd Fall Conference of SEER held October 23-25 in Seattle, Washington featured engaging discussions with leaders in environmental, energy, and resources law, including state and federal regulators, leading scholars, and in-house counsel. Each day was kicked off with a plenary session, such as exploring the emergence of AI and its implications for environment, energy, and resources law, and the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions.
The conference agenda was diverse, including the panel discussion SCOTUS v. Administrative Agencies: The Continuing Battle of “Who Decides” moderated by Jones & Keller Shareholder Howard Kenison. This past year the Supreme Court tackled and trimmed the power of many federal administrative agencies. It ruled on the 40-year-old doctrine of deference to agencies (Chevron), on expanding the time period for challenging final agency rules (Corner Post), and on the constitutional limits of agency use of administrative law judges (Jarkesy). Finally, the Court suggested that it might strike an EPA rule based solely on its lack of application to all states regulated by the “good neighbor” statutory policy (Ohio v. EPA). What should a lawyer practicing in federal courts take away from this increased judicial scrutiny of agency power? How might this battle impact lawyers dealing primarily with state-regulatory agencies? The panel discussed both intellectual and practical implications of the Court’s 2023 Term decisions and pending cases in the 2024 Term.
The panel included, from left to right in the picture: Howard Kenison, (Shareholder with Jones & Keller PC), Ethan Shenkman (Partner at Arnold and Porter, Washington DC), Sanne Knudsen (Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Washington School of Law), and Kannon Shanmugam (Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Washington DC) and others. Howard may be reached at hkenison@joneskeller.com.
The American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (ABA SEER) fosters the success of a diverse community of environmental, energy, and resources lawyers, advisors, decision-makers, and students and provides a premier forum for the exchange of ideas and information. SEER is a meeting place where practitioners can find the most current and sophisticated analyses of the complicated issues facing their practice.