Wyoming v. Oklahoma

502 U.S. 437 (1992)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P is a major coal-producing State and in 1988 shipped coal to 19 other States. P does not sell coal. P imposes a severance tax upon the privilege of severing or extracting coal from land within its boundaries. The coal-fired electric plants being used by Oklahoma utilities are exclusively using Wyoming coal. D adopted a concurrent resolution 'requiring Oklahoma utility companies using coal-fired generating plants to blend ten percent Oklahoma coal with their present use of Wyoming coal. Since the effective date of the Act, P has lost severance taxes in the amounts of $535,886 in 1987, $542,352 in 1988, and $87,130 in the first four months of 1989. P filed in the United States Supreme Court an original bill of complaint seeking (1) a declaration that the D statute violated the Federal Constitution's commerce clause (Art I, 8, cl 3), and (2) a permanent injunction against enforcement of the statute. Both parties moved for summary judgment. A Special Master who had been appointed by the court recommended findings of fact and conclusions of law generally supporting P's motion for summary judgment and rejecting Oklahoma's motion for summary judgment. The Special Master issued a report recommending that the court (1) hold that (a) P had standing to sue, (b) the case was appropriate to the court's original jurisdiction, and (c) because the statute discriminated against interstate commerce on its face and in practical effect, and because the discrimination was not justified by any purpose advanced by D, the statute violated the commerce clause; and (2) either dismiss the action as it related to the D-owned utility without prejudice to P to assert its claim in an appropriate forum, or, alternatively, find the statute severable to the extent that it could constitutionally be applied to that utility.