Description: Challenge to CARB’s rules requiring vessels traveling within 24 miles of coastline to switch to low-sulfur fuels.
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Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Goldstene
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/28/2011 Opinion Download Opinion upholding rules issued. The Ninth Circuit upheld California rules requiring oceangoing vessels traveling within 24 miles of the state’s coastline to switch to low-sulfur fuels, rejecting the shipping industry’s argument that the state lacked legal authority to impose the rules on vessels outside of its three-mile coastal jurisdiction. Affirming the district court, the circuit court held that the plaintiff failed to establish that the Submerged Lands Act preempts the state rules. In a previous decision in 2008 (Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Goldstene (9th Cir. 2008)), the Ninth Circuit held that the state could not enforce a rule that established emissions standards for auxiliary engines that oceangoing vessels use for producing steam and heating water and heavy fuel oil without a waiver under the Clean Air Act.