Despite a California Construction Trucking Association lawsuit attempting to halt the regulations, the CARB brought in big federal guns
Katy Grimes , Bio and Archives--February 24, 2016
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Part ll in a series. Part l is here.
The metastasis of statewide diesel truck regulations created by the California Air Resources Board has forced many large and small truckers out of business. The truckers still in business have had to spend $20,000 to $50,000 per truck retrofit with the CARB’s expensive, mandated Diesel Particulate Filter, or they have had to buy newer model trucks to meet the new regulations. New trucks are hugely expensive.
By the stroke of a pen from unelected career bureaucrats hiding behind layers of government, millions of trucks were suddenly deemed illegal. And it was done retroactively. It is a violation of the U.S. Constitution for the government to pass a law retroactively, criminalizing something after the fact.
Mary Nichols, under whom all of these illegalities have happened, is the Chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board. She was originally appointed by Jerry Brown as the Secretary of Environmental Affairs and Air Resources Board back in the mid-1970?s, when Brown was first elected governor. She worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air and Radiation program under President Clinton, was Secretary for California's Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003 and Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reappointed Nichols when he came into office in 2003.
Ironically, Nichols’ husband, John Daum, is a lawyer for ExxonMobil, and one of the lawyers who represented Exxon Mobil in the Exxon Valdez case filed against Exxon-Mobil for damages resulting from the "worst oil spill in environmental history."
Most California residents have no idea how Mary Nichols is responsible for ruining good people’s lives and livelihoods.
Nichols is charged with the implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and SB 375, the Sustainable Communities Protection Act – both explicit social engineering processes intended to force Californians into high density, high rise housing, out of personal automobiles, and onto public transportation. Nichols continues to forge ahead with additional regulatory and tax schemes, despite her own CARB Officer Richard Corey admitting at a 2013 ARB meeting, “The last three years have seen the biggest drop in carbon emissions” in the state’s history. He said California has nearly met its 1990 levels of carbon emissions — Largely thanks to awareness and technological advances in automobiles.
Since the 2006 passage of AB 32, the CARB has used this law to add regulations on manufacturers, food processors, agriculture, auto and truck owner/operators, trucking companies, energy producers, utilities, and many more. These laws are liberty denying measures. Nichols has a long history of Politburo behavior, and the Air Resources Board is California’s version of the Soviet Union’s State Committee For Planning, which was the Communist central board that supervised the planned economy of the Soviet Union, and decided how much industry in the Soviet Union was allowed to grow in each five-year period.
Nichols even tried to pass a regulation to “forbid dishonest statements offered to the Board or to its staff.” However, once it made the news, the proposed regulation providing for “penalties for false information” was removed from CARB’s website.
Mary Nichols is Gov. Jerry Brown's appointee, and clearly has his approval.View Comments
Katy Grimes, the Editor in Chief of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, and the co-author of California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?