California biased against out-of-state gas?

 A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was to hear arguments today in San Francisco in a legal challenge to a California regulation that imposes a low-carbon standard for transportation fuels within the state.

The first-in-the-nation regulation, an offshoot of Assembly Bill 32, the state's 2006 global warming law, was ruled unconstitutional last year by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O'Neill, in a case brought by farming, oil and transportation industry groups against the California Air Resources Board.

Judge O'Neill held that the state requirement runs foul of the Constitution's Commerce Clause because it "discriminates against out-of-state and foreign crude oil while giving an economic advantage to in-state crude oil."

He also ruled that the state's low-carbon fuel standard similarly "discriminates against out-of-state corn-derived ethanol" and "impermissibly regulates extraterritorial conduct."

The Fresno-based judge issued an injunction preventing the state from enforcing its fuel requirement, which the 9th Circuit subsequently lifted.

So now the federal appeals court will decide whether California is allowed to impose its fuel standards on fuel producers not only in the Golden State, but also producers in the other 49 states that export fuel to California.

Read More: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/state-374623-fuel-california.html