Ethanol Groups Sue California Over Low-Carbon Rule

The Wall Street Journal
DECEMBER 24, 2009, 5:17 P.M. ET
By STEPHEN POWER

WASHINGTON --Two groups representing ethanol producers asked a federal court on Thursday to strike down a California rule that calls for a reduction in the carbon content of fuels sold in that state, saying the measure violates the Constitution and jeopardizes the nationwide market for ethanol.

The suit, filed in federal district court in Fresno, Calif., by Growth Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association, takes aim at California's so-called low-carbon fuel standard. The rule, adopted by California's Air Resources Board last spring but not due to take effect until early next year, calls for a 10% reduction in the carbon content of fuels sold in California by 2020.

In a written statement, the two ethanol trade groups said the measure would erect "new regulatory obstacles" to ethanol and frustrate a 2007 federal law that set targets for the U.S. to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year into the U.S. fuel supply in 2022, up from 11.1 billion gallons in 2009. By frustrating the goals of the 2007 law, the groups said, the California measure violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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