Thread by @TheChalis

Brief explainer for overseas friends about what the Supreme Court of the United States did today in overturning what is called the Chevron deference, and why it really matters for issues of climate and global health.

We’ve really mucked it up again for everyone. 🧵

For many years, the precedent was that companies and individuals were subject to regulations imposed by federal agencies. Those agencies are headed by presidential appointees who are then confirmed by Congress. The agencies were free to make regulations specific to their niche /2

Because members of Congress and the judiciary do not have encyclopedic knowledge across all of agriculture, medicine, transportation, and environment to name a few, it made sense that these agencies were empowered to oversee activities that pertained to their unique expertise. /3

Additionally, all agencies were subject to congressional oversight and could be brought before a committee to answer for perceived shortcomings in their operations. Congress could make a variety of public demands, including pressuring an agency head to resign. /4

Enforcement of regulations was then left to the agencies. Things like:

-pollution
-airplane manufacturing
-food safety

and public health. /5

Due to the reversal of this precedent, it is entirely possible that you, a foreign national, will be on an airplane made by an American manufacturer. If the manufacturer doesn’t like a regulation, the FAA now has to bring them before a judge who can’t spell Bernoulli. /6

If the judge - who has no expertise in physics and may in fact believe the world to be flat in extreme cases - rules that standards are too onerous, congratulations, you are now riding in what amounts to a 40 year old duct taped flying death wish. Good luck! /7

Let’s say car companies decide they don’t like new fuel efficiency standards and factories don’t want to curb C02 emissions. We now have individual judges on a collision course with the executive branch’s power to form international environmental accords. /8

As it pertains to my pet interest in public health, please consider this an urgent warning to prepare for an avian flu pandemic.

Multiple herds in the U.S. now have animals testing positive for H5N1, and federal agencies are already finding it difficult to get farms to test. /9

Now, dairies can openly defy FDA regulations for pasteurization at a time when we know the virus survives in minimally processed milk. New regulations could keep our food supply safer and reduce the chance of a spillover event. But a judge will have to arbitrate those. /10

OSHA or the USDA can come with regulations that force all farm workers to wear specific PPE, but if farm owners don’t comply, that, too, will have to be litigated.

And since this is for folks not as familiar with our systems: litigation takes months or years. /11

Even assuming a judge was reasonable enough to trust trained epidemiologists and virologists and environmental safety experts, those decisions would come far too late to curtail the spread once #H5N1 or a similar avian flu goes human to human efficiently. /12

And as we’ve seen in Covid, what happens in one place eventually lands on your doorstep.

So make whatever plans you feel are necessary and appropriate to help you ride out any disasters that come your way courtesy of the USA.

I’m sorry. We have been trying.
It isn’t enough.

And then there is Project 2025