Union-Tribune Blog: Air Board Soft On Business? Not Even Close
So the California Air Resources Board is going to be business-friendly now that the governor has sacked UC Berkeley green firebrand Robert Sawyer as its leader? Yeah, right. This Orange County Register editorial has the details on the first big CARB action under new chair Mary Nichols:
With scant public attention, state bureaucrats have imposed what amounts to a new tax of $3 billion to $13 billion on a California industry, depending on whose estimate you believe.
The state Air Resources Board last week mandated 85 percent of the 180,000 bulldozers, dirt-movers and off-road construction equipment in California must be replaced or retrofitted to reduce air pollution.
We liken this to a tax because it has the same effect: the government unilaterally forcing private companies to spend huge amounts of money that reduces their profits. The state Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boast they haven't raised taxes. But that's more a credit to constitutional limitations on their powers than to personal restraint. Government achieves the same bottom line with businesses by imposing costly regulations. And few regulations are as costly as is this one. ...
"When (the ARB) couldn't figure out how to pay for it out of (the companies') revenue, they basically concluded (the companies) could borrow money," said Mike Lewis, spokesman for the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition. That means the cost of compliance not only will draw down or wipe out companies' profits, but it also will require businesses to assume substantial debt. The mandates will drive many contractors out of business, Lewis said.
Look at what the air board did here. Then think about all it is planning to do in coming years to implement the state's 2006 anti-global warming bill. Then sell all your stocks in California businesses.