tuxnharley

The problem with the regulatory agencies is that they believe that they need to continuously tighten up the standards even after they have achieved a significant - say 95% - reduction in the original problem. They do so without any consideration of the economics involved, and in fact the California environmental impacts laws exclude economic impacts from consideration.

This craziness is true of all of the regulatory agencies, not just CARB. For example, the Water Quality Control Board passed regulations increasing the standard for certain pollutants from parts per million to parts per billion BEFORE there was test equipment available to detect at that level!

My personal belief is that they do so not for any reason of good science or societial benefit, but rather to perpetuate and justify their own existance.

bullitt4110

If the state is so worried about clean air they should have alternative fuels more avialable as well, E85 burns much cleaner than straight gas for example.

Z51JEFF

From what I understand internet petitions are worthless but I signed just because I hate C.A.R.B. as much as the next guy.

Rob04C5LM

You all seem to forget, or maybe you just didn't know, that CARB cannot and does not make regulation without being enabled to do so by our legislature. I am a contractor to CARB and other state agencies and I understand how their system works. When the governator got rid of a bunch of similar boards a couple of years ago the bureaucracy lost their transparent processes (where industry, the public, and other stakeholders got to make their case to a board in a public forum) and turned into departments with directors that report directly to the governor.

If you don't like what the "bureaucrats" are doing to you, do you really want to suggest that we get rid of the relatively transparent process that their Board structure and meetings provide? The board meetings that helped inform the board members to decline to adopt proposed regulations that you mention above (e.g. tire inflation protocol).

A major problem with our political process is that there are a lot of people who try to participate who don't fully understand the consequences of what they're doing. What's scary is that Sacramento and Washington DC are populated with these folks - we call them legislators - and the special interests and lobbyists are happy to tell them what they're doing.

This petition is a similar thing. You're proposing to abolish a board because you think it will reduce the regulatory constraints on the public. Instead, if you were successful it would leave a heirarchy of bureaucrats who would only be accountable to their director, who would be the governor's appointee.

If your goal is to change the system, you should focus on the governor and legislature who tasks the bureaucracies with implementing their priorities. Our state constitution prevents these agencies from promoting policies in a proactive way, they just respond. We have an initiative system in our state - if you want to be effective, develop a petition for an initiative that overrides some of these regulations that you don't like.

Z06supercharged

Now there's a guy who knows how it all works and makes sense...Dont hate the agency, hate the system...
Now did everyone understand that post above? I seriously doubt it.

0Paul Ruggeri

Part of the problem is nobody has the time to keep track of what the government is doing. You only hear about the new laws after they're inacted. An example is the law that basically banned aftermarket cats. I was unaware of it until I tried to order one and was told I couldn't buy one. Now you're pretty much stuck buying cats from the dealer. Something that used to cost a couple of hundred dollars now can cost over a thousand. Is the air any cleaner? No, but cost are much higher. What lobbying group pushed this?

Rob04C5LM

Follow the money - my guess is that the OEMs had a lot to do with making sure you had to by their $1000 deal instead of allowing competition to provide something for $300.