Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
467 U.S 837 (1984)
Under 1977 Clean Air Act amendments, polluters in certain areas needed a permit before building or modifying stationary sources of air pollution. The EPA interpreted “stationary source” to allow a “bubble policy” treating an entire plant as one source, letting a company modify one piece of equipment without a permit if total plant emissions did not increase. The Natural Resources Defense Council (plaintiff) argued “source” should mean each individual pollution-emitting device, requiring a permit whenever any one device's emissions increased; the court of appeals agreed, having found Congress silent on whether the bubble concept applied to the permit program. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether, when a statute administered by an agency is silent or ambiguous on a specific issue, a reviewing court may impose its own construction of the statute rather than defer to the agency's interpretation.