A coalition of ethanol producers has challenged California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which is intended to achieve a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles by 2020. The coalition says that the measure violates the Constitution and jeopardizes the nationwide market for ethanol. 

The Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy filed a complaint in Federal District Court in Fresno, Calif. The LCFS calculates emissions through the fuel’s full life cycle. Under the standard, corn-based ethanol receives a poor emissions score because of measurements based on corn farming as a food supply. Ethanol producers have complained that California's rule would unfairly discriminate against corn-based ethanol, because the measure would take into account land-use changes that are said to occur abroad when land in the US is converted from growing corn for food to growing corn for fuel.