Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction against California's low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) that was issued by the trial court in late 2011. This decision means that California is able to enforce the rule that’s on the books, while the court takes up the finer points of the case. We’re confident we can win on the merits.
You can read up on the LCFS litigation here and here. In brief, California's clean energy law (AB 32) requires the State to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. One of the ways to do that is to reduce the amount of carbon that is in the gasoline that we use, and that is what the LCFS is designed to do.
Rather than invest to improve their products by providing cleaner transportation fuels and better production practices, Big Oil and Big Ethanol went to court, claiming that the LCFS violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The trial court agreed, and issued an order preventing enforcement of the LCFS, and California appealed.
Today, the trial court's order was put on ice by the appellate court while the appeal is going on. This is a good day for all Californians – the LCFS will help us transition to cleaner, alternative fuels that lower our oil dependency and reduce carbon pollution.