Archive for month: May, 2014

The Attorney General (AG) of California, Kamala Harris has now asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to dismiss all challenges including the primary commerce clause or constitutional violation to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Statewide Truck and Bus rule brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

In Harris’ motion to dismiss part of OOIDA’s original suit filed on Dec. 6, 2013, the AG claimed that the lawsuit’s counts against two primary CARB employees; Richard Corey and Mary Nichols, did not (1) Have correct procedural claims, as OOIDA sued the two in their “personal capacities,” rather than in their “official capacities,” and (2) the AG’s office claimed that no “party,” including OOIDA filed comments with the U.S. EPA during the California State Implementation Plan (SIP) comment period in 2011 and therefore no one or group can [apparently] go back in time to challenge the rule, and once the opportunity was missed has no standing in this entire legal process. Pretty much an absurd claim in CCTA’s opinion, and likely OOIDA’s as well.  Read more

For me to say this past month has been emotionally and psychologically difficult would be an understatement. I was heartbroken as I witnessed what I referred to in my October 2013 article as “Civil War Between Truckers” absolutely came true.

I was at the CARB hearings to amend the truck rule, April 24-25, and watched with dismay as many of our members who had once joined with us in the battle against CARB to sue them are now in compliance (and in debt) and suddenly changing their positions. Read more