◼ The newspaper headlines last week read, “California Low Carbon Fuel Standard Blocked in Court.” It was a component of California’s AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which was scheduled to be implemented on Jan. 1, 2012. - Cal Watchdog
But did the headlines tell the whole story? Did the low-carbon fuel standards imposed by the California Air Resource Board, which implements AB 32, involve reducing air pollution emissions? Or was it an interstate trade war?
...Last week’s ruling was by U.S. Federal Judge Lawrence O’Neill, a native Californian. He ruled that California couldn’t “balkanize” the commercial market for low-carbon fuels such as ethanol as part of its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said the part of California’s AB 32 dealing with low carbon fuel standards was unconstitutional and violated the Interstate Commerce Clause. The Commerce Clause gives the federal government sole jurisdiction over interstate trade.
America’s Founding Fathers put it in the Constitution to prevent states from fighting trade wars against one another. A key to American prosperity has been that the whole country is a vast free-trade zone.
In essence, CARB wanted to go back before the Constitution and set up its own sovereign governmental rules as if California were a separate country. But the court didn’t buy the environmental rationale and ruled it was both unconstitutional and an interstate trade issue.
