May Issue Features an Extensive List of Transportation Topics

I just would like to reiterate what our President, Fred Martin said in his report, that we are making the May Issue our “Crystal Ball – Let Us Help You Sort Out the Future of Trucking” issue.

In total, 5,800 mainly trucking company business owners “the decision makers” are receiving this special issue and it will focus on all the topics that this association is either closely watching or immediately involved with. If you have ever thought about joining an association that is involved, committed to education and fighting for you 24/7, maybe now is the time to stop looking and join us.

May 3, was the deadline for all fiscal bills to clear the policy committees in the first house, so that week was particularly active and we’re now starting to get a sense for which of the 2,300 or so bills actually have “legs” this session.  

First and foremost, AB 666, the Devil’s Bill, was pulled by the author from his own committee due to the mounting opposition, including CCTA. Barring any rule waivers it now appears that this bill is dead for this year.  (Also read Joe’s report on page 19 which covers this legislation in more detail).

So here’s the most recent legislative count: Bills to Support – four, including SB 19 and SB 412 (Knight) to increase aerospace jobs, through employment and R&D equipment purchase tax exemptions. AB 1400 (Committee bill) to reduce delays in processing necessary documents for California exporters, and SB 731 (Steinberg) Comprehensive CEQA Reform, which establishes the Legislatures’ intent to address a variety of problems with the CEQA process and CEQA litigation including:

At the end of my article on page 6 last month concerning the Industrial, Transportation Storm Water Permit “Group Monitoring” program, I said, “you can’t be part of a group.” I should have said you can’t really benefit from the “Group Monitoring as soon as the regulations are finalized” as you were once able to – in my opinion. 

Just as two more electric car manufacturers go bust

I found it interesting that the U.S. Senate late last month passed a last-minute bill to eliminate furloughs for air traffic controllers amid thousands of flight delays nationwide. As one insider said, "it was all a political statement to share the sequestration pain" by the Obama administration. The bill allowed DOT to shift $253 million in funds to the FAA's operations to prevent the worst of the sequesters aviation pain, at least until October.

At the same time the sequester resolution was announced, a story hit the newswire that failed hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive Inc.'s, president Henrik Fisker was denying claims in Congress that the company had used political connections (with Al "show-me the money" Gore) to secure $192 million in government loans to finance a flawed business plan.

CCTA has a proven track record of promoting and protecting the interests and best practices of construction truck company owners, large and small, as well as interstate carriers (recently) through our Legislative and Government Affairs program. 

The first year of the two-year 2013-14 Legislative Session reconvened on January 7th. This year will prove particularly complicated beause in addition to a 2/3’s supermajority of Democrats in each house, the Legislature now has 39 new legislators who have never before served in statewide office. February 22nd was the deadline for all bills to be formally introduced in 2013 and so far approximately 2,400 new bills were introduced prior to the deadline.

State Fund Workers’ Comp has eliminated virtually all groups, today there are only two truck groups, CCTA’s (919) is fortunately one of the remaining groups. With these reductions have also come some stringent enrollment criteria. 

Nobody wants dirty water or waterways and few will risk their property values or punitive fines by dumping waste on or off their land. On page 29 is a great story about the ongoing environmental sue-and-settle public extortion lawsuits which has built dozen of multi-million dollar environmental organization like NRDC, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, EDC, AIR, ALA, the list goes on forever – all or most are incidentally non-profits run by attorneys.

We recently had a staff meeting to discuss ways to improve the organization and readability of the CTN magazine. We decided that sectionalizing the magazine would be the first worthy step. Each section in the magazine will also be identified and color tabbed on the edges of each page to help understand each section. The following color tabs have been added and organized.

We have many members that are members of other trucking associations – ATA, CTA etc. Most pay those associations much higher dues than ours, which incidentally hasn’t increased in 17 years (since 1996). The following ligation involvement directly through our legal counsel and the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is just a small glimpse of the value that CCTA provides its members through dues.

We are actively involved with the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) concerning a variety of environmental issues and litigation. Below is a summary of the current cases CCTA is either directly or indirectly involved in. It is important to note that the PLF is funded entirely by private donations and the cost of their litigation is tiny for each plaintiff. This is also PLF’s 40th anniversary.

During the CCTA winter board meeting February 8, this issue was raised and discussed with the Executive Committee and board members and it was unanimously approved that we proceed. Brooks indicated to us that the idea was also recently discussed with the towers (CTTA) with the same supportive results. Brooks and his staff have been reaching out to both CARB and DMV to support the effort.  

The question is: Should CCTA support and help sponsor legislation to require CARB and DMV to directly regulate and enforce CARB regulations for in-state commercial vehicle registration?

It’s pretty easy these days to figure out what a CARB funded study will conclude. We recently came across another CARB funded air quality study that was simulcast on their website. The presentation began by saying or asking, “Well how about those nasty secondary compounds from different sources. Morning summer commutes and winter evening commutes along with cooking at home appear to be the most dangerous” – or have the “largest biological response.”

So we listened on-line to: “Toxicity of Source-Oriented Ambient Aerosol,” and learned what $839,000 in government largess pays for – 60 slides of “these things may cause adverse health effects,” all more public health scientific prattle to support even more regulations.

New law went into effect January 1st that require a bond to be publicly posted and more

Over the last three years CCTA sponsored legislation to reestablish a “surety or payment bond” requirement for those companies or businesses that broker trucks in construction. As a result of the most our recent sponsored bill, SB 1092, which passed unopposed last year, a variety of regulatory changes to section 34510.5 of the California Vehicle Code went into effect January 1, 2013.

Defining the only challenge to CARB/EPA ridiculous taking regulations

Last month we received a decision in our 22-month long case against California Air Resources Board’s diesel truck and bus regulation that really was not a decision at all. Federal District Court Judge Morris England is telling us that we need to file our suit in a higher federal court (the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) and that we have to include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a defendant.

This decision appears to be based on the vigorous defense put up by the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), a law firm masquerading as a not-for-profit organization, which intervened in the case in support of CARB and this confiscatory rule.  The court appears to be indulging the NRDC activists to prolong our case as long as possible with a series of circuitous arguments – clearly understanding the longer the case takes, the more our industry is damaged – and vulnerability of the CARB on-road diesel engine regulation.

Judge’s Decision Ignores Simple Supremacy Clause Question

I was on the cusp of finishing my January managers’ report just before the Christmas weekend and something happened, so instead of cancelling most of my report, I decided to share it with you. I was going to begin it like this: 

“After 23-months we still have no decision in our case against CARB. September 6th was the last hearing date (this one caused by EPA’s politically-timed acceptance of CARB’s state implantation plan (SIP)). At that hearing, Judge England said he would have a decision out ‘shortly.’ The word ‘shortly’ surely doesn’t mean the same to all of us. Impatient with the delay, we sent an appeal letter to the court on November 15 asking for a decision.”

If you read Greg’s report on page 18 about the projected 50% drop in Caltrans spending, infrastructure funding has never looked more important to us. These are a few bills introduced recently pertaining to transportation and infrastructure development.

SCA 4 (Liu) and SCA 8 (Corbett) would both lower the vote threshold for approving local transportation use taxes from a 2/3’s to a 55% requirement; SB 33 (Wolk) would facilitate the creation of infrastructure financing districts; and SB 42 (Wolk) would create the Clean, Secure Water Supply and Delta Recovery Act of 2014.

A few of our members have made suggestions over the last year to change our freight bill or non-negotiable bill of lading books.

The Western Trucking Alliance (WTA) and the California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA) are excited to announce the endorsement of CleanFleets.net as our partner specializing in CARB fleet compliance. We have agreed to function as a clearinghouse of timely and accurate information to keep construction and interstate freight trucking moving toward compliance with a multitude of safety and emissions mandates.

With the January 1, 2013 date for truck fleets (four or more) to meet the second year of air emission requirements (66%of their fleet) for the On-Road Heavy-Diesel Truck and Bus rule, CARB says it is trying to provide items to assist fleets. Trucks with model year 1996-2004 engines are required to install filters by January 1.

The U. S. EPA not surprisingly issued rules tightening the particulate matter level (PM2.5) in the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) by 20 percent, December 14, 2012. The new rule lowers the amount of allowable fine particulate matter; enviro’s refer to it as soot even though much of it is actually naturally occurring dust and dirt in the air, to 12 micrograms per meter of air.

Going on 22-months and still no decision

After the final hearing in early September, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr., said that he would, “have a decision shortly”.

Later that day, Joe R. bet me that this was a “political” decision and we would not have it prior to the November 6 election – I took the bet and lost. It cost me $20. See Photo.

On November 14, we spoke with legal counsel and discussed the pros and cons of sending a letter to the court. The following day, a letter was sent asking for a decision. The judge did say at the end of the hearing that he would have a decision “shortly.” Well, we’re still looking for it. See the letter on page 6, it’s pretty clear.

One has to wonder why it took this judge only six weeks to rule against our motion for preliminary injunction on the same exact argument as we have with our pending motion for summary judgment which has now taken 22 months and counting. Hmmm…..who believes the courts here are not political?

At 12:15 PM on November 19, we were on a media related conference call with CARB Chairman, Mary D. Nichols who drooled praise about the wealth transfer carbon auction event that took place the day before. She and the CARB Climate Change staff members shared the results of California’s first auction under the cap-and-trade program…Sort of.

The cap-and-trade program is the result of AB32, also known as the Global Warming “Final” Solutions Act, a landmark law passed in 2006 under Gov. Schwarzenegger’s watch.  The state’s mandated goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.