Will the newest Supreme Court ruling, against the EPA, have any affect on FAA FAR/AIM interpretations? I know it is likely to take some time for courts and agencies to figure out how this affects them, I'm just interested in the thoughts of the GA pilot community.
I wonder if this ruling will affect the speed of 100UL implementation. One of the reasons why GAMI's STCs have been approved so quickly by the FAA is the push to get rid of 100LL by the EPA. I wouldn't mind seeing coal-fired power plants disappear. Not only do they put a lot of pollutants into the air, but I've done many flights over coal ash waste storage sites that leached heavy metals into lakes and rivers. There have been some high profile containment failures of these sites that dumped incredible amounts of pollutants into drinking water sources.
I'm not an attorney and I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.
The enabling legislation (passed by Congress) is contained in 49 USC Subtitle VII. Some examples of authorizations are 49 USC 40103 - regulate the airspace, 44703 - issue airman certificates, 44709 - conduct reexaminations, issue suspensions and revocations.
If the FAA were to attempt to go beyond what is authorized in USC 49, there would probably be a problem.
As far as existing legal interpretations are concerned, those address current regulations and I don't believe the EPA case would have any impact on them.