Paul's Industrial Garage, Inc. v. Goodhue County, 35 F.4th 1097

Paul’s Industrial Garage (PIG), a Wisconsin trash hauler, earned about $200,000/year from Goodhue County via collection fees and tipping fees for its Wisconsin landfill.
In 2017 Goodhue County enacted an ordinance requiring all county garbage to be deposited at a county-owned plant in Red Wing (the City Plant), which converts waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF).
The County’s RDF is delivered to Northern States Power (Xcel); the County effectively pays Xcel a net fee to accept and combust the fuel.
PIG and other haulers/processors sued, alleging the ordinance violates the dormant Commerce Clause by favoring in-state interests and by exclusively directing the RDF to a private, in-state company.
The district court granted summary judgment to the County, finding PIG was not a proper comparator to the City Plant or Xcel because PIG cannot convert RDF to electricity; the Eighth Circuit affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether requiring all county garbage to go to a government-owned plant discriminates against interstate commerce	Ordinance favors in-state processing/haulers and burdens out-of-state competitors	PIG is not similarly situated to the County plant or Xcel (cannot make RDF or generate electricity); no direct competition	Court: PIG not similarly situated; no dormant Commerce Clause violation on this basis
Whether the County violated the dormant Commerce Clause by sending/allocating RDF exclusively to a private, in-state buyer (Xcel)	County’s exclusive disposition of RDF benefits an in-state private company and discriminates against out-of-state processors	County’s actions relate to traditional government waste-disposal functions and involve entities that do not compete with PIG	Court: Claim fails because PIG is not a relevant comparator; Court does not reach applicability of United Haulers or Carbone in depth

United Haulers Ass'n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Mgmt. Auth., 550 U.S. 330 (upholding a law requiring haulers to bring garbage to a state-created entity)
C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, 511 U.S. 383 (striking an ordinance that required use of a private transfer facility as discriminatory)
Gen. Motors Corp. v. Tracy, 519 U.S. 278 (dormant Commerce Clause does not forbid differential treatment of dissimilar entities)
Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc. v. Town of Harrison, Me., 520 U.S. 564 (discussed in concurrence regarding state power and exclusivity)