Peter Tomasi on SCOTUS Clean Water Act Case – 'It's really a question of who's the burden on'

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Peter Tomasi commented on a U.S. Supreme Court case with implications for environmental law in the Bloomberg Law article, “High Court to Take First Post-Chevron Look at Clean Water Act.”

Tomasi said the case, City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, can be boiled down to a simple question: “How specific do regulators have to be when they prepare a permit?”

“It’s really a question of who’s the burden on in terms of determining how to meet these narrative water quality standards,” Tomasi explained. “Does the permit applicant have to bear the burden of figuring out what do these narrative standards mean?”

Tomasi added that the case is really about what constitutes good public policy.