Norfolk Southern Wins Ethanol Depot Ruling

A federal judge ruled that Norfolk Southern Corp. can continue operating an ethanol-transfer station in Alexandria, Va., overruling a local ordinance, Bloomberg reported.

A local ordinance requiring permits for ethanol tanker trucks leaving the company’s Van Dorn yard, near Washington, D.C., is invalid under U.S. law, U.S. District Judge James Cacheris ruled, Bloomberg said.

He wrote that the ordinance “is clearly pre-empted by at least two federal statutes,” Bloomberg said. The measure inhibits Congress’s goal of uniform regulation of shipping for hazardous materials.

Railroads operate more ethanol transfer sites in urban areas after Congress tripled the annual mandate for biofuels output four years ago to 11 billion gallons in a bid to curb oil imports, Bloomberg reported.

Norfolk Southern built the Alexandria depot near a neighborhood just a few miles from Washington. A fire that broke out in July on tracks 600 feet from an elementary school and nearby townhouses prompted the city ordinance, Bloomberg said.