Ethanol industry files to take LCFS fight to the Supreme Court

Following the January decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deny rehearing en banc in the litigation regarding California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy are today petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari to make a final determination relating to the constitutionally flawed LCFS.  

“California, through adoption of the LCFS, has violated the most basic, structural features of interstate federalism.  LCFS not only discriminates against out-of-state commerce, but it seeks to regulate conduct in other States in direct contravention of our constitutional structure and at the direct expense of Midwestern farmers and ethanol producers.”   

RFA and Growth Energy moved forward with a Supreme Court challenge after a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a District Court (O’Neill, J.) finding that the California LCFS discriminates against interstate commerce and constitutes extraterritorial regulation in violation of the Commerce Clause. By its own admission, California’s LCFS seeks to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions occurring in other states by rewarding and punishing industrial and agricultural activity taking place outside California.  And it bases the size of these rewards and penalties on whether production took place in California or in the Midwest—systematically favoring California. The Constitution denies states such authority.