As expected, the California Air Resources Board today filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to challenge last week’s ruling that the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) responded to the expected action by noting that the judge who issued the ruling has made a good decision in determining that the LCFS discriminates against Midwestern ethanol producers. “Judge O’Neill agreed, basing his ruling on strong evidence and sound constitutional law,” said the RFA statement. “In the Court of Appeals, RFA will vigorously defend the result obtained at the District Court level.”
The judge’s ruling found that the LCFS discriminates against out-of-state corn-derived ethanol and impermissibly regulates extraterritorial conduct and the court therefore issued an injunction against the enforcement of the LCFS in California.
RFA’s Matt Hartwig provides a good overview of the ruling and its implications on the E-xchange Blog. “The RFA is not opposed to carbon-reducing programs but believes any such initiative should be undertaken at the national level, thus avoiding a state-by-state patchwork of unworkable and possibly unconstitutional policies,” notes Hartwig. “If based on the best available science and grounded in real world perception, a national low carbon fuel strategy that complements the Renewable Fuel Standard would be something the RFA and its members would support.”
Two companies have teamed up to develop advanced feedstocks for biofuels, biopower and biobased products. 
Under the agreement, DuPont has made an equity investment in NexSteppe, and through its 
“Sorghum is a crop with significant genetic diversity and great potential that has received relatively little research attention and funding,” said Anna Rath, NexSteppe founder and CEO. “Combining DuPont’s world-class research and development capabilities with our industry knowledge, experienced team and singular focus, we will be able to rapidly improve the crop to produce feedstocks tailored to the needs of the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries.”
Global chemical giant BASF has invested $30 million in a Pennsylvania-based company that has developed a process to produce cellulosic sugars for renewable chemicals and biofuels.
Renmatix has developed the patented Plantrose™ platform whereby industrial sugar can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass (wood, cane trash or straw). In the Plantrose technology, biomass is split into cellulose and sugar in supercritical water at high temperature and pressure in a two-step process. 
“This ruling reaffirms our position that the state of California violated the U.S. Constitution when it created a low carbon fuel standard punitive to farmers and ethanol producers outside of the state’s border,” said 
At the end of 2011, the 
In this edition of “The Ethanol Report,” Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen comments on the year in preview and some of the top ethanol stories he expects to see in 2012.
Company officials say the plant closures are temporary and due to current depressed market conditions for ethanol. The two plants amount to 55 million gallons per year of production.
The two Republican presidential candidates who topped the Iowa Caucus in a virtual dead heat Tuesday night are both considered to be supporters of renewable fuels.