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California passes regulation forcing truck retrofit

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

As the disconnect between California's CIRM and California taxpayers widens, California emissions regulators are telling California truckers to walk the plank. The Los Angeles Times reports:

California regulators cracked down on diesel air pollution Friday, Dec. 12, adopting the nation's toughest rules on heavy-duty trucks, despite pleas from truckers who said they would be bankrupted in a sinking economy.

The state Air Resources Board voted unanimously for the measure that requires truckers to retrofit or replace older rigs, starting in 2011. The board declared that the health benefits far outweighed the financial pain in a state that has the dirtiest air in the nation. Diesel trucks are responsible for a third of the smog in California.

The LATimes piece contained the line: "They usually look to California for leadership." As a note to Mary Nichols, the state of New Jersey rejected a CIRM-like proposal for New Jersey last year, and is NOT looking to California for leadership, nor is any other state in that area. IPBiz doesn't expect many takers among other states on the truck retrofit either.

One would think the California airheads would wise up on the economic times, especially since the state government can't pay its own bills. Separately, recall the curious past of California regulators that was exposed in the Unocal patent litigation.

Is this a variant of "let them eat cake"?

***In passing, a recent californiastemcellreport post on CIRM is captioned Klein's Salary: News Coverage is Modest. The Chairman of CIRM, who separately runs a real estate business and a lobbying group, has asked for a salary and got $150,000 for half-time work.

Full post as published by IPBiz on December 13, 2008 (boomark / email).