DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Eco-activists sued the federal government to stop activity they didn’t like, but a bombshell Tuesday ruling in that case from a federal appeals court may end up weakening a regulatory system that has served environmentalists well for years.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) does not have the legal authority to issue National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules.

Environmentalists have used NEPA as an avenue of legal attack against disfavored infrastructure projects—particularly oil- and gas-related developments—for years, with long delays pushing back timelines and driving up costs for builders even when the challenges themselves fail, according to analysis conducted by the Breakthrough Institute.

Then-President Richard Nixon signed NEPA into law in 1970, and it has stood as a linchpin of the environmental regulatory regime ever since. The ruling essentially signals to CEQ that “the rulemaking authority [the] agency has been relying on for almost 50 years does not exist,”........

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