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 State Senator Dave Cox


Letters to the Senator:

Sent: 08/11/09 Reply:  09/18/09


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September 18, 20O9

Mr. Mark XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX Avenue
Pittsburg, CA 94565

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX:

This is in response to your letter regarding the California Air Resources Board. I appreciate hearing from you.

The people of the First Senate District have forwarded to me many complaints regarding the overregulation conducted on their personal lives and businesses by the Air Resources Board. I carred legislation that became law last year (SB 155), to extend the deadline imposed by CARB on gas stations in rural counties that could not comply with required eanced vapor recovery installations on their gas pumps. I carried a bill this year (SB 5O7) that sought to extend the deadline for all gas stations, but it was not passed out of its first policy committee in the Senate. I have publicly requested the resignation of CARB Chaian Mary Nichols over this issue.

If legislation were before me to abolish CARB I would vote to support it. I do not believe, however, that such a bill would ever be passed by a policy committee in the State Senate given  its current partisan configuration.

Thank you or your inquiry.

Sincerely,


DAVE COX
Senator, First District

DC: dy
Sent: September 11, 2009 Reply:  October, 2009
Dear Senator Cox,
I am writing you again, to ask for your help. I have a few questions and I hope that you will respond. I am desperate, like I am sure are thousands of others in the trucking industry.

A State of California regulatory board has mandated that I discontinue doing business in this state.

Is it possible that the State of California and the California Air Resources Board can take my private property by mandated regulation? Are there private property rights in this state? Why will it not possible to legally operate my equipment when it meets all safety and emissions standards for the model year it was manufactured? Why would someone spend $20,000 to $70,000 to retrofit a truck that is valued at $30,000? That would not be prudent. Can you, as my legislative representative explain this to me?

The vehicle that I am referring to is not some smoke spewing so called dirty diesel big rig, but at 1998 Class 8 transfer dump truck with low mileage and in very good condition that would normally be valued at about $80,000. This vehicle has not even reached its half life. My business was off 50% in 2008 and 80% in 2009 and 2010 will not be any better. The business asset (the truck) is now a toxic asset, but I continue servicing the debt to maintain my credit worthiness. I cannot afford to comply with these regulations now or ever. CARB’s actions have destroyed the resale value of my property, even before the regulations were implemented.

Current economic conditions dictate the immediate repeal of AB 32. Cap and trade is just wrong. I ask you, is12% unemployment is not high enough for our elected representatives? It has decimated tax revenue, and we hard working, former taxpaying individuals are no longer contributing to the tax rolls. People are leaving the State of California and we are the backbone of the economy. Do you think that this is right?

Our politicians allow the California Air Resources Board to continue their politically driven misinformation campaign to damage us beyond belief. Their lead scientist was suspended, after being found out that his PhD was not from UC Davis but purchased online from a diploma mill. We should trust this government agency? This board needs to be disbanded and use their $857million budget to better the business environment in California instead of driving more jobs out of state. I am sure that you would support that action.

As a member of the California Dump Truck Owners Association, also a strong supporter of www.killcarb.org and the Pacific Legal Foundation, I will make every effort to help achieve our goals. As a supporter that gave you my vote in several elections, tell me, you are someone with the fortitude to do what is just and right to rectify this situation.

On this anniversary of the 9.11 tragedy we need to work together, whether Democrat or Republican like we did on 9.12.
 
Very respectfully yours,
Subject: Response from Senator Dave Cox


Dear Mr. Stevenson:

This is in response to your communication regarding the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and their regulations in relation to the implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. I appreciate having the opportunity to respond. 

 

As a strong opponent of AB 32, it was my expectation that the CARB would draft onerous regulations that would put thousands of small and large businesses in California in jeopardy. The requirement to bring emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020 was too ambitious and would lead to demands for monumental changes to current practices on a very short timetable. Businesses in our state would not have adequate time to adjust. This is exactly what has happened. 

 

If legislation were before me to abolish CARB I would vote to support it. I do not believe, however, that such a bill would ever be passed by a policy committee in the State Senate given its current partisan configuration. 

 

The question then becomes: What can we do to preserve businesses and jobs in California that fall under the jurisdiction of the CARB? All we can do is petition the agency to relax their regulations in the face of the real possibility of job losses in our state. 

 

Along that line, I signed a letter along with many other legislators asking CARB to suspend the On-Road and Off-Road Diesel Vehicle Regulations they adopted last December. This is due to the inability of most trucking firms to be able to comply with these regulations starting January 1, 2010. As was predicted, the funds CARB expected to be available to help businesses comply have not become available, and are grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the entire industry. CARB is expected to review this regulation in December of 2009, and we expect an answer to our request before that date.

 

In addition, I signed a letter to CARB requesting an extension of the 2010 deadline for California’s water well drilling fleet, which uses Tier 0 deck engines in their vehicles. An adequate replacement engine for this fleet has not been found, and the need to keep these vehicles in service is immediate due to the drought conditions in California, especially for agricultural businesses in the Central Valley. 

 

The people of the First Senate District have forwarded to me many complaints regarding overregulation by the Air Resources Board. I carried legislation that became law last year (SB 155) to extend the deadline imposed by CARB on gas stations in rural counties that could not comply with Enhanced Vapor Recovery regulations for their gas pumps. I carried a bill this year (SB 507) that sought to extend the deadline for all gas stations, but it was not passed out of its first policy committee in the State Senate. I have publicly requested the resignation of CARB Chairman Mary Nichols over this issue. 

 

Again, I would shut CARB down if I had my way, but the majority party in the Legislature does not share my view. 

 

Thank you for informing me of your views on this matter. If you have questions or comments on this or any other matter relating to state government, please feel free to contact me again. 

 

Sincerely,

 

DAVE COX

Senator, First District
Sent: October 3, 2009 Reply: None
David Cox,  This the first time after living here for 70 years and see California going to bankruptcy and to have my Daughter accepted to UC system and have to say no,"I can't afford it!"
 
The reason I know your name and went to your Web site and learned your the pick year after year of " Taxpayers Watch. Asso."  From www.killcarb.org Have your people research this site.  Please.  Make this your number one priority  to help Californians.
 
The main reason is the grass-root Web site.   I see DAVID COX,State Senator,not in my district, supports to stop funding CARB, if, "Bill is presented to me."   Come on you know that's wiggle room "politician speak" and not the reason your picked by "Taxpayers Watch Asso."
Want to see you present a bill:  To Stop Funding CARB.

I do this by going to, with thousands of other Californians, who post large signs on back on their trucks to, NOT VOTE FOR, name of Politician, in their District.

                        The grass-root Web is:  www.killcarb.org

We monitor this up-dated site to see which way our Politicians, who work for us, and want to be re-elected!!!

Sincerely,
Voter,Taxpayer,Property Owner Vacaville And S.F.   
For David Cox's eyes,  Please.
Sent January 22, 2010
 Reply February 01, 2010
Click image to see full size
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.
 Dear Mr. XXXXX,

This is in response to your communication regarding the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and their regulations in relation to the implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. I appreciate having the opportunity to respond. 

 

As a strong opponent of AB 32, it was my expectation that the CARB would draft onerous regulations that would put thousands of small and large businesses in California in jeopardy. The requirement to bring emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020 was too ambitious and would lead to demands for monumental changes to current practices on a very short timetable. Businesses in our state would not have adequate time to adjust. This is exactly what has happened. 

 

If legislation were before me to abolish CARB I would vote to support it. I do not believe, however, that such a bill would ever be passed by a policy committee in the State Senate given its current partisan configuration. 

 

The question then becomes: What can we do to preserve businesses and jobs in California that fall under the jurisdiction of the CARB? All we can do is petition the agency to relax their regulations in the face of the real possibility of job losses in our state. 

 

Along that line, I signed a letter along with many other legislators asking CARB to suspend the On-Road and Off-Road Diesel Vehicle Regulations they adopted last December. This is due to the inability of most trucking firms to be able to comply with these regulations starting January 1, 2010. As was predicted, the funds CARB expected to be available to help businesses comply have not become available, and are grossly inadequate to meet the needs of the entire industry. CARB is expected to review this regulation in December of 2009, and we expect an answer to our request before that date.

 

In addition, I signed a letter to CARB requesting an extension of the 2010 deadline for California’s water well drilling fleet, which uses Tier 0 deck engines in their vehicles. An adequate replacement engine for this fleet has not been found, and the need to keep these vehicles in service is immediate due to the drought conditions in California, especially for agricultural businesses in the Central Valley. 

 

The people of the First Senate District have forwarded to me many complaints regarding overregulation by the Air Resources Board. I carried legislation that became law last year (SB 155) to extend the deadline imposed by CARB on gas stations in rural counties that could not comply with Enhanced Vapor Recovery regulations for their gas pumps. I carried a bill this year (SB 507) that sought to extend the deadline for all gas stations, but it was not passed out of its first policy committee in the State Senate. I have publicly requested the resignation of CARB Chairman Mary Nichols over this issue. 

 

Again, I would shut CARB down if I had my way, but the majority party in the Legislature does not share my view. 

 

Thank you for informing me of your views on this matter. If you have questions or comments on this or any other matter relating to state government, please feel free to contact me again. 

 

Sincerely,

 

DAVE COX

Senator, First District