California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

By Eric Eisenhammer, The Coalition of Energy Users

In early December the Coalition of Energy Users presented the unelected California Air Resources Board with hundreds of signatures from Californians urging they stop their plans to raise gas prices by billions of dollars by changing the formula for gas. On December 29, a Federal judge struck down their plans as a violation of the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution.

A ruling by Fresno-based U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill found that CARB’s plans discriminate against out of state fuel producers in a ruling that is a huge victory for Californians who cannot afford to pay more for gas at this time of record unemployment.

CARB’s plan, essentially a biofuels mandate, would have raised gas prices a total of $3 billion in 2018, $4 billion in 2019 and $4.5 billion by 2020 according to the state’s own California Energy Commission.

California’s gas taxes are already rated by the American Petroleum Institute as the highest in the nation, at 66 cents a gallon when factoring in Federal, state and local gas taxes, and rising gas prices have made gas costs the highest proportion of a family’s income in 30 years.

Thank you for your support. We have won a number of big victories this year and have put ourselves on the map as a force and the media and political establishment are taking notice. We have exciting plans for next year which I’ll be telling you more about soon.