Picture this: Your professor assigns a project on making our campus more sustainable with one caveat: “Ensure that any changes do not disrupt daily campus operations.” Without clear guidance, your team is left to question, “What exactly constitutes ‘disruption?’” Now, imagine this uncertainty on a national scale. The Chevron doctrine, established in 1984 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, helped to prevent uncertainty by providing clarity and consistency in regulatory policy. In 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine. With this change, we have entered a world in which sustainability efforts may face much more uncertainty.
My interest in sustainability grew out of an appreciation for how environmental policies shape our world not only now but for generations to come. I chose to major in public policy and economics to gain the tools needed to understand both why these policies matter and how to make them impactful and effective.
In an energy policy class I took last spring, I worked on what has been one of my favorite sustainability projects. My team worked on a semester-long initiative in which we conducted market analyses on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption feasibility at UPS’s Anchorage hub. We examined technical, economic, and policy challenges, ultimately proposing a three-part strategy to meet a 30% SAF adoption target by 2035. This work gave me insight into how sustainability goals can be approached holistically, considering both market drivers and policy incentives.
This year, as an Undergraduate Sustainability Ambassador at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (Center), I am working with a team on a project for CBRE Property Management – to develop a tool to streamline access to environmental incentives, rebates, and regulatory compliance guidance. It has been exciting to explore how local, state, and federal policies, as well as private-sector efforts, can collectively encourage cleaner and more sustainable operations.
On January 22, 2025, I attended a panel discussion, “The Chevron Doctrine Overturned,” organized by the Center. Attending this talk gave me the opportunity to hear directly from industry experts about how changes to Chevron might impact both future policy-making and private sector decisions. The talk, moderated by Charlotte Alexander, professor of law and ethics, brought together legal experts from Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP – Stephen O’Day, Stephen Youngblood, and Michael Riesen – and Burt Fealing, general counsel of Southwire Company. The panelists shared insights into how the overturning of the Chevron doctrine affects business strategy, regulatory compliance, and the future of corporate decision-making in an era of heightened legal scrutiny. These issues align closely with my goal to have a career in which I help organizations navigate complex sustainability challenges by understanding and working within existing policy frameworks.
The Chevron doctrine had governed rulemaking by federal agencies. As Youngblood explained, the Chevron doctrine provided a framework for evaluating whether a rule was in the scope of a statute. Think of it as a clear error rule that defers to agency expertise: “Courts will uphold an agency rule under the Chevron doctrine unless the rule is clearly inconsistent with the authorizing statute.” Now, with the overturning of Chevron, courts will no longer grant deference to agency rulemaking and instead will use their own judgment to determine whether a regulation is outside the scope of a statute.
The overturning, which has implications for the rulemaking process, will also impact industry. Fealing explained how a change in the framework for what the law is causes great uncertainty – and with uncertainty comes associated costs.
This shift might create more uncertainty for industries attempting to innovate within sustainable markets. For example, businesses aiming to adopt new technologies (like UPS with SAF) might struggle with uneven court interpretations of agency rules post-Chevron. Or, property owners may suffer losses due to the inability to reliably plan for energy efficiency incentives as regulatory frameworks shift. Overall, this uncertainty could limit long-term investments in sustainability and slow the progress needed to meet climate goals.
Attending this panel reinforced my passion for blending public policy and sustainability. Policies create the foundation for a more sustainable future, and their impact depends on our ability to navigate and adapt to ever-changing regulatory landscapes.
Whether I am creating a tool to help property owners take advantage of green incentives or analyzing market challenges for procuring sustainable fuels, I am committed to addressing sustainability challenges in a way that is grounded in policy expertise. Policy shifts like the overturning of Chevron are not just interesting to me – they are essential for shaping my understanding of how to make a real difference!
About the Author: Sarah Hailu is a fourth-year public policy major with a minor in economics and a concentration in environmental and energy policy. She is serving as a 2024-25 Undergraduate Sustainability Ambassador at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business.