Federal court strikes down California air-quality law

Decision preserves market for Kansas ethanol TOPEKA (December
30, 2011) A federal court has agreed with Kansas that a California
law favoring California-produced ethanol over that manufactured in
the Midwest is unconstitutional, Kansas Attorney General Derek
Schmidt announced today. In an order entered yesterday, the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of California barred
California from enforcing its state-based Low Carbon Fuel
Standards. In March, Kansas and five other Midwestern states had
filed a brief asking the court to block the California law because
it favored use of California-produced ethanol over that produced in
the Midwest in violation of the Commerce Clause of the United
States Constitution. This is good news for Kansas ethanol producers
and for our states farmers who sell grain to them, Schmidt said. It
means that the California market remains open to Kansas ethanol,
and it means that Kansas ethanol can continue to be part of the
solution to air-quality problems on the west coast. Schmidt joined
with attorneys general from Nebraska, Michigan, Missouri, North
Dakota and South Dakota in asking the Court to block the California
law because it discriminated against the use of ethanol produced in
the Midwest without any lawful basis for doing so. Yesterday, the
court agreed. This Court finds that the California fuel standard
impermissibly discriminates against out-of-state corn ethanol and
impermissibly regulates extraterritorially in violation of the
dormant Commerce Clause and its jurisprudence, the Court wrote in
its opinion. Schmidt said he is encouraged by the Courts decision
and believes it will stand up on appeal. If the State of California
decides to appeal the ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
based in San Francisco would have jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The case is Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Goldstene.