California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

Our 71st Summer Board Meeting held at the DoubleTree in Ontario June 23 was another great success and reflected a growing and diverse staff and membership.

We had a variety of special events that week, starting with an Insurance Risk Transfer and Lien Law seminar on Thursday the 21. The following day after the EC meeting, we hosted a meet and greet fundraiser for Senator de Leon, who is author of a number of industry bills over the last three years. On Saturday, our legal counsel and lobbyist Brooks Ellison gave his usual Capitol updates during the luncheon (sponsored by Dan Bertrand of Armstrong insurance).

Due to President Fred Martin’s medical procedures to cure his cancer over the last month, he said he was going to pass on this month’s magazine column, but will be back for the August issue.

In response to the May 31 order from Judge England for supplemental briefing from the parties, both CARB and NRDC filed supplemental briefs on June 14. We filed a responsive brief on June 28, 2012.  CARB and NRDC will file a responsive brief by July 5, 2012, and our final closing brief will be filed on July 12, 2012.

Ted Hadzi-Antich, the attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) who has been challenging EPA, recently sent a petition to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of CCTA and others, requesting that a hearing be held in Sacramento regarding the waiver from the provisions of the Clean Air Act for CARB’s non-road diesel engine regulations. If the regulations go into full effect, they will have a profoundly negative impact on our members. The regulations will require expensive retrofits of existing equipment, with little or no environmental benefit. For the regulations to go in to effect, they must first be approved by EPA.

This month we are rolling out a new PrePass program that we believe everyone in the construction and seasonal trucking will surely benefit from. As of July 1, our new PrePass monthly rates will change to $13.99/truck or device, but this will include a unique program that we had been asking for to address the seasonality of our industry.