Portland Pipe Line Corp. v. City of South Portland

On July 15, 2021, a company that operates a crude oil pipeline system running from South Portland, Maine, to oil refineries in Quebec filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal in the First Circuit Court of Appeals to voluntarily dismiss its appeal of a district court decision upholding a South Portland ordinance that prohibited bulk loading of crude oil onto marine tank vessels. The Portland Press Herald <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2021/07/15/south-portland-wins-pipeline-lawsuit-over-local-clean-air-rule/">reported</a> that the pipeline company said its parent company decided to dismiss the appeal because the company did not have current plans to reverse the flow in the pipeline to bring crude oil from Canada to South Portland for export.

In a pipeline operator’s appeal of a district court’s rejection of its challenge to a City of South Portland ordinance prohibiting bulk loading of crude oil onto vessels in the City’s harbor, the First Circuit Court of Appeals certified three questions to Maine’s high court concerning potential preemption of the ordinance by state law. The First Circuit said it would “sidestep the federal quagmire for the moment” in accordance with “well-settled constitutional avoidance doctrine.” Therefore, instead of addressing the domestic and foreign Commerce Clause and federal preemption claims raised by the operator, the First Circuit asked the Maine Law Court to weigh in on whether the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s 2010 renewal license for the pipeline operator’s oil terminal facility was an “order” with preemptive effect under the Maine Coastal Conveyance Act (CCA), a statute that imposes a licensure requirement for oil transfers in and around state waters. If the renewal license was an order, the First Circuit asked the state court to address whether the CCA expressly preempted the ordinance challenged in this case. In addition, the First Circuit asked the Maine Law Court also to address whether the CCA impliedly preempted the local ordinance.