MTA, Four Trade Groups File Lawsuit to Stop Minnesota’s Biodiesel Mandate
This story appears in the April 27 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Minnesota Trucking Association and four trade groups are suing Minnesota in federal court in an attempt to topple the state’s biodiesel mandate.
The trade groups filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on April 17 against the heads of four state agencies. The complaint said the state’s order that diesel fuel for trucks and other vehicles must often contain 10% biodiesel violates three federal statutes, a Minnesota law and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.
“We would like to see the mandate go away,” MTA President John Hausladen told Transport Topics. “The litigation goes after the B10 [10% biodiesel blend] level, but we think our arguments are strong enough to make the whole mandate go away.”
Minnesota’s law says diesel fuel should always contain at least 5% biodiesel, and from April through September, it should be a 10% blend. Depending on circumstances, the mixture for the warm-weather blend could rise to 20% in 2018. Biodiesel is problematic in the winter because of its tendency to congeal, so the blend ratio increases in the summer. Vehicles aren’t designed for a 10% biodiesel blend and respond poorly, according to the complaint.
MTA is joined in the suit by the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
Defendants are the top officials at Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce and Commerce’s Weights and Measures Division.
The complaint said conventional and alternative transportation fuels can be regulated, but it should be done by the federal government in accordance with the Clean Air Act, the Energy Policy Act and the Energy Independence and Security Act.
When the state enters this realm, the complaint said, it violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause.
Biodiesel is often made from soybeans but also can be manufactured from animal or vegetable-based fats and grease.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encourages the use of biodiesel as part of its Renewable Fuel Standard but has set 1.16% as a nationwide average for biodiesel blended into petroleum diesel.
As a practical matter, the Minnesota Trucking Association argues that the mandate drives up diesel prices, making operations more difficult.
“Our state’s average is 3 cents higher than in neighboring states,” said Kyle Kottke, general manager and co-owner of Kottke Trucking in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota. “Our trucks avoid buying Minnesota diesel as much as possible.”
The state declined to comment.
The National Biodiesel Board did offer a statement taking issue with the legal action.
“We are disappointed the American Petroleum Institute and other national groups have sued to suspend Minnesota’s strong biodiesel policy,” NBD spokeswoman Jessica Robinson said.
She said the state’s biodiesel policy was created to diversify the fuel supply with “locally produced biodiesel that creates jobs, protects our environment and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.”
“We would encourage API and others to stop fighting progress with lawsuits against renewable fuels and to join the movement to protecting consumers by diversifying our fuel supplies with cleaner alternatives,” Robinson said.
Glen Kedzie, environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations, said Minnesota’s biodiesel rule calls for an uncommonly high amount of blending.
The complaint said the auto dealers joined because diesel-powered passenger cars are not designed to run on biodiesel blends higher than 5% and that 10% could do harm to the engines.
