When the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board adopted California’s emissions standard rules more than 20 years ago, no one could have predicted the stranglehold it would put on Pennsylvania’s trucking industry.
“Pennsylvania cannot give away governing power to unelected bureaucrats in California,” Luke Wake, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, reportedly said. “Pennsylvanians should only be governed by their own representatives in the state legislature. No one in Pennsylvania ever consented to be ruled by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).”
In 2002, the Quality Board not only adopted the Golden State rules but included a caveat that Pennsylvania standards automatically update to match CARB’s. Peters Brothers trucking company recently joined the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA) and three other outfits in a civil lawsuit against the state. The gist of their grievance is that people and businesses in Pennsylvania are not being represented in the creation of environmental rules and regulations. State law requires agencies to hold open hearings and publish potential regulations for public comment.
“I love this country. I love my family. I love my God. I’ll stand up when somebody has to stand up. I won’t let nobody be bullied. We have issues with our state tolling — tolling the bridges indiscriminately. We fought that,” Brian Wanner of Peters Brothers reportedly said. “That’s how I got involved more with the PMTA because I was such an advocate. I’m a local official with the township. I’m township supervisor. So, I mean, the consequences when the government does stuff and doesn’t think it through, we have to stand up, or we’re just going to lose everything.”
CARB has made national headlines and drew fierce pushback from trucking advocacy organizations such as the American Trucking Associations. Its recent mandates call for what some call unrealistic emissions standards and phasing out diesel-fueled semi-trucks. But a little-known rule requires trucking outfits to purchase pricy extended warranties. Peters Brothers, like many truck transportation companies, doesn’t purchase extended warranties because it employs diesel mechanics. That’s where Wanner drew a line in the sand and joined the lawsuit.
“The cost of the trucks have escalated tremendously. I mean, some is inflation, but the regulations on these engines have made the trucks costly,” Wanner reportedly said. “We shouldn’t have to sue our government to get common sense stuff done. But that’s where we’re at now.”
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