On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference in the “Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo” case – ending its 40-year reign, with vast implications across every industry and sector. Now that the decision has sunk in over the past few months, Alaska Business Journal wanted to take a deep dive to look at how overturning the Chevron deference has on the state and its key industries.
Alaska Business Journal reporter Terri Marshall interviewed Dorsey & Whitney partner Bonnie Paskvan – who works out of the firm’s Anchorage office – about what she is seeing post-Chevron deference for the state. To start, Bonnie “believes the Loper Bright decision will have a disproportionately large impact on Alaska.”
“It’s hard to say with certainty exactly what the impact will be in Alaska, but we are heavily dominated by federal regulation all over the state, whether it be via federal funding or federal oversight for mining, fisheries, or any other large, heavily regulated projects,” says Bonnie.
“It just seems likely there will be a bigger impact here than in some other states where those factors are not at the forefront. Also, about 65 percent of Alaska’s land is federally owned and managed, so federal policies about land use are going to be very heavily determined by federal bodies, whether that be by litigation or regulatory agencies. So who gets to decide the rules of the road and what that looks like in timing, costs, and process?”