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 State Assembly Member Joan Buchanan

Letters to the Assembly Member

Sent: January 22, 2010
Reply: None
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Dear, - Joan Buchanan - Mark DeSaulnier - Dave Cox - Roger Niello - Dan Logue - Arnold Schwarzenegger - Jerry Brown - Meg Whitman - Steve Poizner - Tom McClintock - Ellen Corbett - Alberto Torrico I am writing you today as a concerned citizen of California. I have tried on numerous occasions to express my concerns, only to find that they are falling upon deaf ears, so hopefully you can either help me or point me in the right direction. I must encourage you to research the information below if you have any doubts about its accuracy. The specific issue I want to bring to your attention today is the gross negligence and utter disregard for the economic well being of California citizens, and our state as a whole, which has been continuously carried out by the California Air Resource Board. Just to clarify, I am not Anti-Environmentalist and just complaining about CARB because they have an Environmental agenda. My family and I have been camping & enjoying nature my entire life, but I believe there needs to be a healthy balance between protecting the Environment and protecting the well being of our people & economy. After witnessing the regulations that CARB continues to produce (I.E. Both Diesel Regulations, The Under Inflated Tire Regulation, Etc.), it is very clear that CARB’s only goal is to strangle businesses out of California for the “Good” of the environment. Recent independent reports estimate the regulations enacted by CARB are going to cost $182 Billion per year if implemented. I believe the people of our country will naturally gravitate towards environmentally friendly technology as it becomes financially viable and it does not need to be forced upon people at the expense of the tax payers. My family has operated a small construction company since the 1940’s, and is the true embodiment of a “Mom & Pop” operation. Our company has less than 20 employees in all, about half of which are close family members, and the rest of our employees have been with us so long that they are basically part of our family. I, along with a number of my cousins, are currently the 4th generation of our family to work at our company, and now I am extremely fearful that there will not be a company left by the time the 5th generation of our family is old enough to join us. My Grandparents, who are both about 80 years old and still work 8+ hours every day, have been forced to mortgage their home (which had been paid off for decades), all to try to comply with the CARB regulations. They have worked in this industry for over 50 years and they thought they had seen everything, but the financial devastation brought on by this CARB regulation has been the most detrimental challenge our company has ever faced. We have been forced to spend Hundreds of Thousands of dollars so far and larger companies have been forced to spend countless millions, and this is just the beginning. With only one sweeping regulation, the Air Resources Board has completely erased everything that my Great Grandparents, my Grandparents, Great Aunts & Uncles, Father, Uncles, Countless Cousins, and Myself have collectively dedicated our lives to building. As you may already know, the California Air Resources Board has passed, among numerous other anti-business regulations, an “In Use Off-Road Diesel” Regulation which has absolutely devastated California’s already decimated Construction Industry. This regulation has demanded that all fleets of tractors in use in California be either upgraded to a “Tier 4” engine, or be “Retired” between 2009-2020, depending on the size of the fleet. The problem with the new rules is that “Tier 4” engines do not exist yet. Since companies are unable to simply go buy a new tractor, or engine, that is compliant with the CARB regulations, we are having to spend a tremendous amount of money to remove the current engines, which are running just fine, and replace them with a newer engine just to “band-aid” that tractor for a couple of years. Once a “Tier 4” engine is invented and becomes available, we will then have to spend even more money to remove the new engines we just paid to have installed, and replace them with a version that is only a couple of years newer. The thought process behind the implementation of this regulation is basically synonymous with a law being passed that mandated all cars to have engines that run on water in 10 years, but since that technology does not exist yet, everyone with a car must convert it to run on hydrogen until the water engine is invented. You know as well as I do that if any elected official were to propose a bill like that, it would be the end of their career. To make the problem even worse, CARB has mandated that as of early 2009, no company may add a “Tier 0” engine (Engines made before 1998) to their fleet, meaning that we cannot simply sell our tractors in California in order to buy compliant tractors once they are available. The only options we have are to; Sell the tractors out of the state/ country, pay more money than the tractor is even worth to band-aid it for a couple of years, or to completely dismantle tractors that are running perfectly and sell it as scrap metal. The option which might seem the most inviting would be to sell them out of the state, however, the amount of money we can get for the tractors has been driven down to a small fraction of what they were worth before the Regulation was created, due to the fact that the out of state market has been flooded with all of the tractors that are no longer allowed in California. That means that ALL of the equipment that we bought throughout the life of our company has been devalued so drastically that we cannot sell them for enough money to replace even 10% of our fleet with compliant tractors. Recently we had some people walk in to our office to purchase quite a few tractors, so they could ship them out of the country, and their offer was $40,000 for 7 tractors. That means that we would have to give up 7 tractors that run perfectly and are still used, just to fund a fraction of what it costs to band-aid ONE tractor for a couple of years. Considering that most Earthmoving tractors cost well in excess of $100,000 to purchase, we have been put in a situation where we could sell every tractor that we own, and still not have enough money to put a down payment on enough tractors to replace half of our fleet. The members of the Air Resources Board told the contractors that they can just raise their prices in order to compensate for the costs of the regulation and the lost value of their equipment. In an ideal world their suggestion might have worked, and their Regulation might have just been a little bump in the road, but as you well know, we couldn’t be farther from an ideal world right now. Not only are we unable increase our prices to offset the cost of complying with the regulation, we have been forced to drastically reduce our prices in order to get any work at all. Before, the engineers estimated costs to finish a project were always exceeded by a substantial amount, but now almost every winning bid is approximately 60%-70% of the engineers estimated cost, which is a downward swing of around 40%. As you can see, there is no way that contractors can take the advice of CARB and just raise their prices, because we cannot even get work when we charge less than when they suggested that strategy. In a time when our state is facing a budget deficit in excess of $20 Billion dollars, and an unemployment rate in excess of 12%, the last thing we need is even more companies closing their doors or simply leaving the state. Not only is the state having to spend billions of dollars funding CARB (Over $750 Million per year), but CARB is using that money to pass regulation after regulation that cause California to lose the businesses that employ millions of California residents. California is losing the tax revenue from the businesses that CARB is forcing to leave the state or go out of business, as well as the residents who are displaced by the loss of those businesses. California is losing more jobs than we can afford to and the people who stay here cannot afford any more taxes than we are already paying, especially to fund regulations which do nothing but hurt our state. The part of all of this that is difficult for me to comprehend is that drastic regulations like this can be drafted and implemented by an organization that is entirely made up of people who are not even elected officials and who represent one frame of mind. The citizens of California did not select these people to represent them, and the Board Members know that they do not have to worry about being voted out of office if the populous does not agree with their decisions. The Board Members of the Air Resource Board are comprised completely of people with Political, Academic, or Environmental backgrounds. There is not 1 person on the Board with a background in Finance or Economics or even a “Blue Collar” background, so the regulations the Board is coming up with are not developed with a true impact on our businesses and Residents considered. No matter how much damage is caused by their regulations, they are allowed to continue dreaming up larger and more sweeping regulations. The Board Members continuously insult the public by ignoring our outcry and they even stoop to the level of flashing biased “Reports” & “Studies”, which are compiled by their own employees, in order to justify their reckless actions. Many REAL scientists pointed out that their reports did not follow the Scientific Method because they INTENTIONALLY LEFT OUT information that was contradictory to the end result they wanted. There are a number of legitimate studies, carried out by independent researchers, which completely contradict the “study” provided by CARB. As was made clear during the public hearing for the Off- Road regulation, the reports that CARB used are made by employees who falsely report information & data collected ( I.E. Downs Equipment Rental from Bakersfield CA) , drastically underestimate the true cost to Californians, and overestimate the benefits gained from the proposed regulations. In addition to a number of their “Report’s” validity, accuracy, & professionalism being called into question , it has come to light that the CARB “Scientists” who are tasked with conducting these “Studies” are not even qualified to do so. (I.E. “Dr.” Hein Tran) Even though this fraudulent activity was brought to the attention of a number of board members (including Chairwoman Mary Nichols) Nichols decided not to inform the rest of the board members before they voted on the implementation of one of the Diesel regulations. When the deception of Nichols was called into question by fellow Board member Dr. John Telles, a representative for CARB essentially told Telles that Nichols did not violate CARB’s procedural rules because they do not have any. Despite the public outrage, and even the outrage of some Board Members, over the deception and lack of ethics in this matter, “Dr.” Hein Tran and Mary Nichols are still gainfully employed by CARB. I am begging you to please do the right thing and stand up and help the people of California. After all of the economic harm that has been done by CARB, along with the numerous instances of lying, deceit, and outright disregard for the wellbeing of Californians, there is absolutely no justification in letting CARB continue to have unregulated power over California. I am urging you to support the passage of AB118, which would suspend the Diesel regulations until our State unemployment rate is below 5.5%. The passage of this proposal is the least that can be done to ease the financial burden of the people of California. There must be checks and balances at every level, especially when there is a branch of our government that is entirely comprised of like minded people. With no diversity in the opinions & objectives of the CARB Board Members, the welfare & will of the people of California cannot be accurately represented. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter and I look forward to your response. Sincerely, Tyler Lebon P.S. If you have any questions or would like me to clarify anything, I would be more than happy to talk to you on the phone, answer an e-mail, or even meet with you in person.

Sent March 3, 2010
 Reply:
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March 3, 2010 The Honorable Joan Buchanan 2694 Bishop Drive Building G Suite 275 San Ramon, CA 94583 Dear Representative Buchanan, I am writing to voice my concern that our state leadership appears to be driving California straight off a cliff. The Governor is out there on the talking head shows telling the world how California has turned the corner on home sales, on foreclosures, on unemployment stating he has created or saved 150,000 jobs. He talks about our state leading the environmental way in creating all these green jobs. He needs to pull his head out of the gutter and take a breath of reality. What really irritates me is that while we are sitting here with a 15+% unemployment rate the state government has not laid off or cut back one employee. The state pension plans are going broke because it is polluted in corruption and not a soul in Sacramento seems to even care or demand an investigation. No one in Sacramento seems to worry about anything and why should they? They can’t be laid off, fired, or even cutback in hours. The unions run the state with a ‘me first’ attitude. While the state is $20 billion in the red we have the Air Resources Board implementing AB32 based on unproven science and a tainted report by an employee who lied about his credentials. Of course he is still making $90,000 a year because CA can’t fire him. A recent UC Sacramento study stated that the implementation of AB32 “would cost the average household $3,857 a year, kill more than 1.1 million jobs and cut the state's economic output by nearly 10 percent. Costs for food, fuel, electricity and housing would all rise, he predicts, driving a 26 percent drop in discretionary spending, slashing tax revenues and squeezing small businesses.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for clean air. I’m also a big fan of human survival. They talk about 2,000 premature deaths a year they will be saving. What about the deaths that will occur by taking income away from 1.1 million families? Let us not forget the worst environmental disaster in state history, MTBE poisoning our ground water tables for decades to come thanks again to faulty science from a corrupt agency that isn’t accountable to anyone. They left this state with a $10 billion clean up tab that still needs to be done. They don’t care about that because they are too busy implementing the next $20 billion dollar fraud on the taxpayers of CA. The farmers in the central valley are going broke because one environmental lawyer convinced a judge last year that the Delta Smelt were endangered so 2/3 of the water that farmers rely on was cut off. So we are now putting smelt as a priority over a farmer in a state in which agriculture is our number one commodity. Again, nobody seems to care in Sacramento. I would like to know if you are working on correcting any one of these issues. You are new to your office. You shouldn’t have the burden of hidden back room deals or promises made for your positions yet. I urge you to shake things up in Sacramento. I will be moving back to Danville (where I grew up) at the end of May and need to see some action from you to correct some of these suicidal policies so I can support you in a re-election bid. And support you I will if you show me that you are fighting to bring some common sense back into government and turn this train wreck around. The clock has run out on with a wait and see agenda. We need action now! I await your reply. Very Sincerely, Jeff R. Miller