Articles

Yesterday, a federal court in Fresno enjoined implementation of the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, reasoning that the regulation impermissibly burdens interstate commerce in violation of the U.S. Constitution.  Prof. Richard Frank has a good analysis of the decision in Rocky Mountain Farmers Union v. Goldstene at ...

Sacramento, CA; April 16, 2013: Attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation today filed a lawsuit challenging California’s “cap and trade” auction regulation. The regulation creates a quarterly auction program requiring many California employers to bid significant amounts of money for the privilege of continuing to emit carbon dioxid ...

PLF represents Morning Star Packing Co and others in their constitutional challenge to California’s illegal greenhouse gas allowance auction.  A hearing this week at the California State Senate illustrated how high the stakes in this fight are.  California anticipated collecting $1 billion dollars (cue Dr. Evil) to balance its budget this y ...

California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal recently held that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved new fuel standards before it completed a mandatory environmental review process. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their actions before they act. To accompli ...

Today Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed the closing legal brief in Morning Star Packing Company v. California Air Resources Board, PLF’s lawsuit challenging CARB’s Cap and Trade Regulation.  The illegal auction component of the regulation seeks to siphon billions of dollars of revenues from productive private hands into the bo ...

On Friday, August 9, 2013, I’ll be speaking to lawyers from around the nation converging at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco, regarding PLF’s legal challenge to CARB’s Cap and Trade Regulation.  The regulation is the only one of its kind among the 50 states, and the lawsuit has garnered natio ...

Today the trial court ruled against PLF’s clients on its AB 32 claims, holding that AB 32 authorized the auctions and that the auction revenues were not unconstitutional taxes.   Morning Star Packing Company v. CARB, DECISION111413.  We strongly disagree with the ruling and will appeal to the California Court of Appeal, where the appella ...

2013 was a big year for PLF’s air litigation program, and 2014 is sure to continue the trend.  Nothing gets me more fired up than bureaucrats who break the law while writing rules the rest of us must obey.  The current crop of greenhouse gas regulations is an egregious example of air emissions controls running amok. … ...

It was only a matter of time. On the heels of the Cap-and Trade Regulation, on May 22, 2014, the California Air Resources Board adopted a regulatory plan that is so severe and so inimical to the interests of the state that it almost defies description.  Officially refered to as the First Update of the AB 32 Scoping Plan, the new … ...