We highlighted in last month’s newsletter that while the California Air Resources Board (CARB) may have lost the battle over their Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule, their war on combustion engines wages on.
Independent Source Rules (ISR) are still on the table, but in the latest move, California Governor Gavin Newsom is seeking a Trailer Budget Legislation (TBL) giving CARB the authority to assess fees (aka taxes) on the entities it regulates.
This proposed Regulatory Fee Authority stems from the California Trucking Association’s (CTA) lawsuit against CARB’s approved fees on Temporary Refrigeration Units (TRU). The CTA argued successfully that CARB did not have the authority to levy such fees without legislative approval.
The governor and CARB are attempting to remedy that lack of authority with this TBL.
Not only is industry against giving a “blank check” to CARB, the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) came out strongly against the proposal. In their review, the LAO cites the lack of compelling rationale as well as giving up the legislature’s constitutional “responsibility to determine the fees and charges assessed on Californians.”