Court Opinion

ID: 9665496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:49:56.097222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:16.149027
License: Public Domain

TEIGEN, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result. However, I feel it should have been pointed out in the majority opinion that, although natural gas and lignite coal may be broadly classified as natural fuels of this State, the differences between their physical characteristics are so self-evident that there is reasonable ground for distinguishing between the machinery and equipment used, or usable, in processing them for consumption. The same is true as between sugar beets and potatoes, and to this list may be added a number of other natural products which are also processed, such as, small grains processed for human consumption and feed crops processed for livestock consumption, and the machinery and equipment used and usable for such processing.
No contention is made here and none can reasonably be made that machinery and equipment required to convert natural gas into usable fuels can also be used to convert lignite coal into a usable fuel. I believe that it would be proper to take judicial notice of the fact that machinery and equipment used in the processing of natural gas in no way compares with the machinery and equipment used in processing briquettes, for example, from lignite coal, or the machinery and equipment presently being used experimentally for lignite coal gasification purposes. These various facts alone, it seems to me, show that such great differences exist in relation to the subject as to prevent the courts from saying that the processing of the two are in any respect alike and that these differences make the classification reasonable, not arbitrary, and one which actually exists. The classification, in my opinion, is based on real and substantial differences which furnish a reasonable ground for making a distinction between the different classes.