California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

1.) Contractors Score Major Victory: Congress Approves Contractor Withholding Tax Repeal

2.) Fresh round of hacked climate science emails leaked online

3.) Unchanging Science: Why Climate Skepticism Is A Virtue, Not A Vice

4.) Obama Administration & EPA Use Clean Water Act for New Overreach

5.) Peak Oil & My SUV:

Business Insurance Nov. 18, 2011

The California State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) said Friday that it plans to distribute a $50 million dividend to certain policyholders—the first time it has done so in a decade.

California’s largest workers comp insurer said its board approved the dividend Friday after determining that the state fund “has adequate surplus, and is making good progress on its expense management and underwriting discipline.”

City Journal, Tom Gray 18 November 2011

It took some doing, but business just won a round in its seemingly endless battle with the balky regulators who give California such a bad reputation. And it wasn’t just any business: it was the unfashionable, unloved oil and gas industry. Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown announced that he would replace two top state regulators responsible for reviewing new oil-drilling permits. Placed on paid administrative leave was Elena Miller, who had direct authority over the permitting process as head of the state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). Brown also dismissed Miller’s boss, Derek Chernow, the acting director of the state’s Department of Conservation. Brown had sense enough to see that California was becoming known as a bad place to invest. Now, of course, he will need to follow through by appointing a DOGGR chief similar to those who ran the agency before Miller: not a shill for Big Oil, but someone who would enforce environmental rules without treating oil and gas production as something akin to a criminal enterprise.

By Dina Cappiello, AP Fri Nov 18, 3:49 am ET
WASHINGTON ­DC - It was a startling claim: Air pollution has no connection to asthma, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul said on the Senate floor.

        But Paul, and a chart he used to make his case against the health benefits of a new federal air pollution rule, relied on some creative sourcing and pseudoscience.

        Paul's chart was a graph showing air pollution declining in California as the number of people diagnosed with asthma rose. The chart attributed the data to a May 2003 paper by what was then called the California Department of Health Services. But the department never plotted the relationship between those two factors.

        The real source was a 2006 paper "Facts Not Fear on Air Pollution" from the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank. The paper, by independent consultant Joel Schwartz, contends that most information on air pollution from environmentalists, regulators, scientists and journalists is exaggerated or wrong. The paper was not subjected to the normal peer-review process demanded for most published science.

By CCJ - November 14, 2011

      The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a final rule to keep in effect until Jan. 30, 2014, the requirement that interstate drivers subject to the commercial driver’s license regulations and the federal physical qualification requirements must retain a paper copy of the medical examiner’s certificate. In addition, interstate motor carriers also are required to retain a copy of the medical certificate in the driver qualification files.

      FMCSA says it published its June 13 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to ensure the medical qualification of CDL holders until all states are able to post the medical self-certification and medical examiner’s certificate data on the Commercial Driver’s License Information System driver record. But the rule does not extend the mandatory dates for states to comply with the requirement to collect and to post to the CDLIS driver record data from a CDL holder’s medical self-certification and medical examiner’s certificate.

By CCJ - November 17, 2011

      The Engine Repower Council has announced its strong support of the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act (H.R. 1449) to ensure a competitive automotive repair industry where car owners, not car companies, can decide who repowers or repairs their vehicles.

      “Engine repowering with a quality rebuilt/remanufactured engine cost effectively extends the life of a vehicle, provides like new or better engine performance and saves environmental resources,” says Ken Carter, chairman of the Engine Repower Council. “Passage of the Right to Repair Act will protect car owners and their trusted repair shops from a vehicle repair monopoly by requiring they have the same access to the same repair and service information as the franchised new car dealer network.”

OC Register, 11-20-11

      When presented with evidence of California's unemployment rate, second highest in the nation, and the ongoing exodus of manufacturing jobs to other states, California's Democrats generally dismiss such talk as hearsay and note that “green jobs” will provide the panacea to the state's fiscal ills.

      Gov. Jerry Brown has called green jobs “the key to our economic future.” When he was running for governor, he wrote as part of his jobs-plan proposal, “Investments in clean energy produce two to three times as many jobs per dollar as gas, oil or coal. And dollars invested in clean energy tend to stay in California, instead of going to other states or other countries.”

      That's a great talking point, especially during an election. But it's becoming clear that even green jobs are headed for states with more favorable business climates.

By Leonora Walet and Kane Wu

HONG KONG | Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:38am EST

(Reuters) - Generous state bank loans to Chinese solar companies, a bone of contention for their Western counterparts, are threatening the financial health of the firms, as they grapple with falling product prices and tumbling demand from their biggest customer, Europe.

The huge funds that flow into China's solar sector, in which local governments hold stakes, have boosted production in the first half despite fragile demand, depressing product prices and setting off an anti-dumping probe by the United States.

State banks provide easy loans to the sector amid the Chinese government's push to develop clean energy. Provincial governments that have helped build solar companies are also pressuring banks to continue lending, which may add to the woes of the struggling industry.

The glut of production and swelling inventories of the panels that turn sunlight into electricity have already driven down prices by about 40 percent so far this year. Analysts expect prices to slide by another 10 percent by early next year.

By Dennis Prager – Jewish Journal

November 9, 2011

“In the belief that there are people on the left who are more interested in understanding the right rather than in simply dismissing its decency, I would like to briefly explain why many thoughtful people are skeptical of the claims made on behalf of global warming.”

Those claims are:

1. The Earth is warming to an unprecedented extent (in terms of man’s recorded existence on Earth).

2. This warming is caused by human beings burning fossil fuels.

3. This warming will lead to worldwide catastrophe by the end of this century.

Sacramento Bee, Published Tuesday, Nov. 08, 2011

As the California High-Speed Rail Authority was staging a made-for-television event last week to ballyhoo its latest plan – or pipe dream – for a bullet train system, an equally dense document that paints a more ominous transportation picture was quietly circulating.

It's an update of the California Transportation Commission's periodic snapshot of transportation services and needs – state and local, public and private.

Every year since 1970, the Forest Service has provided the nation’s Capitol with a Christmas tree. This year the Stanislaus National Forest is leading the State of California in the harvesting and delivery of the 2011 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. This will be only the fourth year California has been given the honor to contribute the tree, the last time was in 1995. The sixty-foot red fir will grace the west front lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Royal Trucking is excited to announce that we have been chosen as the carrier to transport the 2011 tree. We want to thank the family of our long time driver, Tom Crise, for nominating Royal Trucking. Tom will be our representative and driver, along with Duane Brusseau, on this 4,500 mile journey to Washington DC.

The tree will be harvested on November 5th, and sent on an eight-day tour that begins in Sonora and travels throughout California. Then the journey will continue across the country, arriving in Washington D.C. November 28^th, the Monday after Thanksgiving, making frequent stops in communities along the way. Upon its arrival, the tree will be set up, strung with lights, and decorated in preparation for the 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Go to www.capitolchristmastree2011.org to track Tom and the tree……or visit in person at one of the many California stops below.

May we suggest the following items as gifts for the Holiday season. BOOKS!

On this second-scariest day of the year (behind Tax Day), the CATO Institute is pleased to offer special prices on two of our appropriately titled books.

Haunted Housing: How Toxic Scare Stories Are Spooking the Public Out of House and Home

and

Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry About Global Warming

both books are currently available at our bookstore at terrifyingly low prices!