Brickbat: Don't Keep on Trucking

Vitpho / Dreamstime.com

Officials with trucking companies say a proposed California law would virtually eliminate commercial trucks from the state. The law would require the California Air Resources Board to reduce diesel emissions 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. The board has already mandated that all transit agency buses be emissions free by 2040.

Comments

[Adans smith]

Well they can get their ;organic' food shipped in by mule train like Gia intended.

[loveconstitution1789]

They will just set up 'Victory Gardens' in San Francisco and LA to grow locally sourced food.

Oh yeah, zoning restrictions are so restrictive in Commifornia that many cities dont allow gardens.

[Jerry B.]

Besides, they'll need all that open ground for solar panels to charge their electric cars.

[Conchfritters]

They're probably looking for a way to transport it on their billions $$$ light rail trolleys.

[Eddy]

Did someone mention diesel power?

[Adans smith]

Diesel power was my nick name in collage.

[Al Bendova]

You should have gone to a "collage" that taught spelling.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If you wanted to design a plan to spur inflation and shortages of goods, this would be it.

[AlmightyJB]

Winning!

[Jerryskids]

Curious that they call themselves progressives when it's obvious they think the last 500 years or so of human progress was a big mistake. Forget the GOP wanting to take us back to 1951 - or 1851 as some would have it - , the watermelons want to take us back to just plain old 51.

[Earth Skeptic]

Steven Pinker was right. Most of these people are actually "progressiphobics".

[loveconstitution1789]

2019 DOT Trucking Regulations

There has been a real government effort to make the trucking industry the whipping boy for a few unsafe drivers.

While Congress does have the enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce, this heavy hand of regulation clearly is having a costly effect on shipping via roads. Some truck drivers are being offered over $100k per year to get people willing to endure all the rules just to drive a truck.

Looking at the hair drug testing, illustrates that the government wants zero tolerance for drugs, even drug use during vacations.

[0x1000]

I'm curious on your take on the commerce clause. Do you think it should exist, or would you say the constitution is flawed?

[Rockabilly]

Fucking commie retards

[Radioactive]

where do you suppose commie retards come from? there must be some fucking involved somewhere, though I suspect it happens in the dark (ever get a look at some of these shit weasels?)

[Quo Usque Tandem]

All part of the Green New Deal; and if you think it's just a few fringe lunatics promoting this, think again. They may well be lunatics but they are not all that "fringe."

[Earth Skeptic]

They certainly are on the fringe of physical reality and reason.

Just because lots of people believe something stupid, that does not make it less stupid.

[Overt]

Aren't unseen costs great?

Step 1: Jack up the price of goods by regulating the hell out of industries.
Step 2: Get re-elected by promising a "Living Wage" to all those people who can't afford basic goods any more.
Step 3: Get re-elected by promising endless welfare to the people who can't find employment in the shrinking pool of minimum wage jobs.
Step 4:...
Step 5: Profit!

[Al Bendova]

Sounds like a great idea. California doesn't need trucks for anything.

[markm23]

_Can_ California ban trucks, licensed in another state, from transiting the state, making deliveries, and picking up goods to be shipped? I think that would violate Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce, so the main effect of this would be to force trucking companies, distribution warehouses, and maybe drivers to move to neighboring states. It would give Reno and Las Vegas some business besides vice... But local deliveries such as lumber companies, restaurant suppliers, and fresh goods from farm to store would become a problem - either they'd have to use gasoline-powered trucks, or change their business model to use trucks from out-of-state, which would encourage them to ship from and to out of state, instead of keeping keeping anything local.

And don't think electric trucks will save CA. The Tesla electric semi-tractor announcement was pure vaporware - Tesla no longer has the capital to develop anything new. Even if GM or Ford steps up to do this, there'd be no chargers. The fastest charge that won't damage the battery is 30 minutes, but for a semi, that draws as much power as a whole residential neighborhood. Installing such chargers will almost always require upgrading the power entrance, and often upgrading the power lines. And in CA, which imports much of its power and runs short on hot summer days, putting in chargers for a fleet of electric semis would require new power plants and major upgrades to their main high tension lines.

[markm23]

So the real effect if they go through with this: Local deliveries that remain local will be with gasoline rather than diesel, increasing the carbon emissions. Other shipments will go by diesels from out of state, often with a stop at an out of state warehouse added to the route, greatly increasing the mileage, emissions, and costs. Some of that emissions increase will be off-set by businesses closing and moving out of state...

Or else, in combination with the other nuttiness running through CA politics, they manage to reduce themselves to a third world economy - until the impoverished newly-made-peasants rise up, kick the environmentalists out of office (if not hanging from lamp posts), and overturn _all_ state and local environmental regulations. Unfortunately, they'll probably keep the rest of the anti-business and socialist policies, ensuring they remain poor and continue raping the Earth. Poor people have much more pressing concerns than the environment. Preserving the environment is a privilege of wealth, and wealth is created by free markets.

[Bach]

Considering how much freight comes through the ports in California (especially LA) that trucks then take to the rest of America, this sounds like a terrible idea for us all. Maybe California is now getting behind the idea that we need to cut back trade from China.

Perhaps they can move all that freight with trains along the I10 to the border with Arizona so truckers won't have to step foot in that miserable state.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The board has already mandated that all transit agency buses be emissions free by 2040.

lol

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

They're eliminating diesel train engines, right?

[Morbo]

They're going to make the trains run on thyme.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Here you come baby, dumb as sin
Tell what you've been thinking from the state you're in
So keep on truckin, mama,
Truck my blues away.