Death by Environmentalism

I told you how our family business has given up the good fight and is going under, like so many other small businesses across the country. Unfortunately, that is still true and for the first time in my 16 year career, I'm sending out resumes! I guess it was bad timing to have a new baby and then decide to the close the business the same month, but I never thought it would come to this. No one did. So here I am, looking for work at the worst time since the Great Depression. I've known this day was coming though so I've been hustling trying to start other businesses like a broker company and insurance agency. However, because the entire auto industry is so tainted right now, those other ventures are struggling to get off the ground. We office on the Mile of Cars in National City, CA and the joke going around is that it should be renamed "The Half Mile of Cars" because of all the closed dealerships. It's sad really, so many guys out of work. Which makes me more pissed off about the situation each day and a lot more compassionate for our customers who keep getting laid off. I really feel bad for the truck drivers though. They were our bread and butter, our lifeblood, and they are gone. I mentioned before that I feel the banks were responsible for a huge part in this collapse, but there was another culprit....the environmentalists and the passing of AB32.

AB32 is the the name of a California Assembly Bill that passed in 2006, also known as the "Global Warming Solutions Act". It should be called the "Death of California Business" because that is exactly what it accomplished! It's a huge factor of our company closing down because we were so closely tied to the trucking industry. Almost 90% of our business was loaned out to independent owner/operator truck drivers, and this bill helped put them out of business. It is really depressing to witness someone come to America (usually from Mexico or South America), work as a driver for a big trucking company and save every cent until they can go out buy their own truck. He comes in a couple months later to buy another truck because business is booming and we finance that one too. Eventually he has four or five trucks on the road, supporting him and his family and everything is great. He makes money, we make money, the world goes round. Then some bullshit, completely over the top law like AB32 comes around, authored by two democrats of course, gets pushed through and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger (who should be ashamed for even calling himself a Republican). Our customer is now being told by the government that he has to pay $175 permit fee at the port he runs containers out of because his truck is "non-compliant with emission standards." His only alternatives are to overhaul the engines at a huge expense, or buy a truck that is 2001 or newer.

(On a side note, I think it ties in to a much greater plan of nationalizing the major industries, but that's just me. These independent drivers for the most part are all hard working immigrants who can't afford a new truck, which is upwards of $150k. But you know who can? The government. I know it may sound crazy now but do not be surprised if by 2012, Obama has not nationalized the trucking industry. It's just a hunch. Anyway, back to our independent trucker.)

This guy now has five rigs and four drivers who all can't get work because the economy is slowing down, diesel gas hit $5 per gallon in 2008, and now he has to pay a permit fee in the port on top of it? So what does he do? He turns ALL his trucks in one day to our company. We now have five more repossessions for the auction which is already flooded with the same type of non-compliant trucks. Just like that, all this equipment is now worthless and just as fast, his American dream is officially dead. He goes back home and literally vanishes (it's a little tough to collect from someone in Guatemala). And do you want to know the really messed up part of this? The science used to author this bill was FALSE! The lead scientist behind the study for AB32 was recently found to have "grossly exaggerated his academic credentials", and you probably noticed that Global Warming as a whole is under a hell of a lot of scrutiny now.

(If you really want to be amused, do a search into some articles written in 2006 about global warming, in the height of the doom and gloom fear-mongering by the environmentalists, essentially guaranteeing that if we don't pass legislation right away, the Earth is going to melt and all mankind will be reduced to ashes. Articles like that go all the way up to November 2009 when thankfully, Climategate hit the Internet. Just to be clear, I don't normally condone hacking into e-mail servers and stealing documents, but in this case...it was heroic!)

This bill has been getting a lot of scrutiny because of Climategate, and on December 9, 2009 there was a meeting of the Air Resources Board to deal with this bill. Michael Gardner of the Union Tribune reports that during six hours of public testimony, dozens of struggling truckers implored the board to consider their plights. They shared stories of lost business and layoffs. "It's a job killing rule," said Byron Bloom, president of Priority Moving in San Diego. He said compliance with cost $1 million." These are independent drivers, business owners, they don't have a million dollars. They were trying to show that because so many people have lost their jobs as a result of this law, they are actually ahead of schedule for emissions compliance and now need to relax their ridiculous compliance standards. Basically, the environmentalists did such a good job of putting people out of business, they don't need to worry about the environment anymore! Great. Congratulations. You killed the trucking industry.

Now you've got this legislation in place, this job killer, which has been debunked, so what do you do now? How do you fix it? Can you give everyone their jobs back? No. Can you give us our bank line and all of our customers back? No. All you can do is repeal AB32 and unfortunately, the clown we have in charge, the RINO (Republican in Name Only), the Governator won't do it! He has hordes of hard working California business owners begging him to do something to fix the problem and he doesn't care! There is someone out there though that does care and is willing to do something about it. Once again, that person happens to be Meg Whitman! I told you in the last post about her, about the incredible CEO who can fix California and guess what? She wrote an Op-Ed piece on September 17, 2009 to the San Jose Mercury News calling on Schwarzenegger to issue an executive order to put a one year moratorium on AB32. Then she said the following: "If he does not, I will issue that order on my first day as Governor."

Let's hope she gets that chance.

The Dan