South Portland crude oil loading ban faces new opposition
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several oil industry groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn South Portland’s ban on loading crude oil onto ships that was approved by the city’s council in July 2015.
The Bangor Daily News reported that the groups recently filed legal briefs in support of the federal lawsuit filed by Portland Pipe Line Corp. in early 2015, which alleged the city's crude-oil ban enacted in July 2014 is interfering with interstate trade, diminishing the value of its pipeline, discriminating against Canadian interests and infringing on federal regulatory processes.
A "friend of the court" refers to an individual or group interested in influencing the outcome of a lawsuit but not an actual party to the suit.
“Ordinances like the one the City enacted here … set a dangerous precedent that, if adopted elsewhere, would seriously disrupt interstate and international markets and create a patchwork of regulations that the Constitution and numerous statutes were designed to prevent,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote in its brief, the BDN reported.
The newspaper reported that the city’s legal position asserts that “home rule” provisions in Maine law gives it and other municipalities wide rulemaking authority, including the ability to craft rules regarding air quality.
Editor's note: This story has been revised to clarify that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and oil industry groups have filed as "friends of the court" and are not actual parties of the original lawsuit.
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