California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

Hello again to all you still in business here in California, (the number is shrinking every day). Thank you to everyone who has taken the effort to call their local elected officials. Things have been heating up for our enemies at Zealot Central (some call it CalEPA, CARB or ARB). We all need to continue this effort to voice our dissatisfaction with this out-of-control government regulatory agency.

This month, I suggest that you contact all of the CARB Board members and give them a message on how their actions have affected you, your business, your family, your employees and their families. Also consider the negative impact on your business partners such as contractors, fuel suppliers, parts and service companies, truck body builders and all the other businesses affected by your financial well-being.

This month we have included the CARB contact list here; CALL NOW, make your voice heard! Do not be nice; just tell them the truth and what you think. Remember these are the people most responsible for the value of your equipment today and the future of your small business!

Considering the condition of the current economy, maybe CARB Board Members should be reminded what the regulations have done to your equipment values even before they have implemented their ridiculous regulations. It might be worth a couple of words on the lack of trust we have for the governmental regulatory processes now because of CARB’s chair, board and staff. The actions of Mary Nichols especially in deceiving board members and the public without blinking an eye, are despicable. Couple this unethical behavior with the Hein Tran fraud, and the manipulated science for profit by fraud-ridden, conflicted, no-integrity UC scientists paid for by million dollar “friends of Mary – get me the results” grants.

You should also be aware of the fact the Mrs. Nichols was originally appointed 32 years ago (1978-83) by the then-California-governor Jerry Brown (now attorney general), who was supposed to be in charge of keeping rogue zealots and the like within the boundaries of government. Maybe Jerry’s zebra stripes are bleeding through his supposedly new and improved candidate-for-governor image. Then again, maybe he is still as kooky as he has always been and is just another professional politician.

I just read that Assembly Member Logue’s anti-AB 32 voter ballot initiative was given title and summary by Mr. Brown and his AG’s office. Now cleared for circulation and signatures by the Secretary of State, it requires 433,971 valid signatures by July 5th in order to get on the ballot.

Jerry’s group has taken it upon itself to retitle the Logue “Save Jobs by Postponing AB 32 Until Employment Drops” initiative to “SUSPEND AIR POLLUTION CONTROL LAWS REQUIRING MAJOR POLLUTERS TO REPORT AND REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS UNTIL UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS BELOW SPECIFIED LEVEL FOR FULL YEAR.”

Pretty catchy huh – Suspends Major Polluters? Might as well have said, “Free the rapists and child molesters.” Oh, forgot, they are already doing that!

This is how they (the environmental zealots and their beholding political shills) are able to fix the process all the time against reasonable efforts to balance government – it has to stop!

As you’ll recall, the Logue initiative would suspend state laws requiring reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, until California’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters. It also would require the state to abandon implementation of comprehensive greenhouse-gas-reduction program that includes increased renewable energy and cleaner fuel requirements, and mandatory emission reporting and fee requirements for major polluters such as power plants and oil refineries, until the suspension is lifted.

The summary of estimates by the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance regarding the fiscal impact on state and local government is “Potential positive, short-term impacts on state and local government revenues from the suspension of regulatory activity, with uncertain longer-run impacts. Potential foregone state revenues from the auctioning of emission allowances by state government, by suspending the future implementation of cap-and-trade regulations.”

Quoting from the CARB playbook as I read it: The Air Resources Board is a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency and associated with the federal EPA. CARB’s mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain health based air quality standards.

1. Protecting public health should not come with the price tag of bankrupting thousand of family businesses for the negligible emission reductions it is generating during a record recession. But it is certain that loss of jobs and income makes families unable to afford health care which is surely to kill tens-of-thousands of Californians.
2. An effective reduction does not include most of the dump truck industry, those who run less than 30,000 miles per year and or operate on PTO systems in their operation. Over-the-road trucks, not vocation trucks as our dump trucks, have qualified for funding and if the basis is 150,000 miles, give us 5 more years to catch up.
3. In our own private testing facilities, Betty Plowman (CDTOA Emissions Expert) and I tested other engines CARB oversees and found a 1993 Kenworth with a Cummins N-14 engine to run cleaner than a 2008 Yamaha engine and a 2008 John Deere engine.
   After my business took advantage of CARB incentive money to update my fleet a few years ago (in better economic times), it is ridiculous how these clean diesel trucks are now on the block to be axed by current regulation in just a few years. Those trucks provide JOBS, and the economy does not support the debt load to buy new trucks.

Mr. Obama, in his first State of the Union address in late January, spoke of “Government’s responsibility to act as the citizens have already been forced to do, like control spending and live within their means.” He added, “Small business is the lifeblood of this country.”

Remember strength is in numbers, and don’t forget to call each of the board members three or four times. You can Google their business numbers and just call them there. Cover-up artists like mayor Loveridge, the Mayor of Riverside (with 13%+ unemployment), are pretty easy to get.

AIR RESOURCES BOARD
www.arb.ca.gov
Public Information - (916) 322-2900

Office of the Chair
Chair - Mary Nichols - (916) 322-5840

Board Members - (916) 327-6247

John Belmes
Sandra Berg
Dorene D’Adamo  
Ronald O. Loveridge
Lydia H. Kennard   
Barbara Riorden
Ron Roberts   
Daniel Sperling
John G. Telles   
Ken Yeager