How the Supreme Court’s EPA Authority Ruling Will Impact Commercial Real Estate

Abstract

The court's ruling in the case may affect commercial real estate in surprising ways, from watering down a pending Securities and Exchange Commission emissions disclosure rule to creating a reactive uptick in state and local regulations that seek to decarbonize the real estate industry. Because the court has grown more conservative recently, Biden's EPA was more likely to draft narrower, plant-specific greenhouse gas standards and the Supreme Court's recent ruling doesn't prevent the EPA from doing so. The court's ruling could affect pretty much any regulation in the future issued by agencies like the EPA. That would include federal regulations that impact the real estate industry, such as eviction moratoriums, rules regarding the pandemic and public health, and financial regulations. The ruling may also have an outsized impact on the SEC's proposed carbon emissions disclosure rule that real estate firms have so many concerns about. Now, the Supreme Court's ruling in West Virginia v. EPA could jeopardize SEC's climate rule. "We'll be looking at many other rules the Biden administration and independent agencies are putting forth, particularly the SEC's rule," Morrisey said. The front line of the climate crisis Another side effect of the Supreme Court climate ruling could be shifting the climate change fight further from the federal level to cities and states.