SALON

Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012 9:00 AM UTC

Court to hear arguments in Calif. clean fuels case

By

Topics: From the Wires,

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court will hear arguments in a case seeking to stop California’s first-in-the-nation mandate requiring petroleum refiners and ethanol producers to make cleaner fuels for millions of cars and trucks in the state.

At issue before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the constitutionality of California’s “Low Carbon Fuel Standard,” an important piece of the state’s landmark global warming law, AB 32.

The mandate requires petroleum refiners, fuel distributors and others to make cleaner-burning fuels for the California market.

But out-of-state oil refiners and biofuels producers have sued over the law, saying it will give an unfair advantage to in-state fuels producers. They argue the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause by imposing limits on interstate commerce.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill in Fresno agreed with the plaintiffs, and earlier this year halted implementation of the new law.

The 9th Circuit in April removed O’Neill’s injunction after the state appealed, and allowed the law to move forward while the case wends its way through the courts.

The California Air Resources Board, the agency in charge of implementing the law, said the standard will cut California’s dependence on petroleum by 20 percent, and will account for one-tenth of the state’s goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Pat Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School, said the fuel standard is integral to the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The appeals court’s decision will set an important precedent as other coastal states try similar tactics to reduce their carbon footprints, he said.

“California is ground zero for climate change with sea level rise, loss of snowpack and increased threats of wildfires,” Parenteau said. “California has the strongest argument that it has to take these kinds of measures to protect its environment, public health and welfare.”

The transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in California. Under the law, all vehicle fuels must on average be 10 percent less carbon-intensive by 2020.

The regulation doesn’t mandate specific alternatives fuels, but instead assigns them a so-called “carbon-intensity score.” The score accounts for pollution created during the entire life cycle of a fuel, not just when it is burned in a vehicle.

Plaintiffs say this fact discriminates against fuels produced out of state, because the transportation of a fuel into the state alone would increase its carbon intensity score.

“CARB conveniently stacks the deck to favor fuels made in California over those made in the Midwest,” the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and other agricultural plaintiffs argued in court documents.

“Simply put, when comparing identical products made from identical processes head-to-head under the (law), the fuel made in California automatically receives approximately a 10 percent advantage over Midwest competition.”

California Attorney General Kamala Harris and attorneys for environmental groups appealed to the 9th Circuit, and have asked the court to overturn O’Neill’s ruling.

“The (mandate) has nothing to do with imposing California’s ‘preferences’ on other states,” the state said its court filings. “(It) offers incentives for cleaner, alternative fuels to inventors, engineers and fuel producers without regard to location.”

More Jason Dearen.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations