Western States Petroleum Association v. Oregon Commission on Environmental Quality

The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld rules adopted to implement Oregon’s low carbon fuel standard. The court found that the Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) evaluated required statutory factors relating to safety and potential adverse effects on public health, the environment, and air and water quality. The court also found that the challenge to EQC’s failure in 2015 to evaluate potential effects on the generation and disposal of waste was moot because EQC had readopted and amended the rules in 2017 in a manner that appropriately addressed the waste issue. The court also ruled that purchase of credits in the low-carbon-fuel market established by the rules did not constitute payment of a tax and therefore did not violate the Oregon constitution’s requirement that revenue from taxes on motor vehicle fuels be used exclusively for construction and maintenance of public roads and roadside rest areas.