I recently received an email about a bill, (AB 1332), introduced to abolish CARB.  Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of the 59th District is the author. The bill is pretty simple, give the California EPA all the powers currently held by CARB and shut down that agency.

From a non emotional, non punitive, purely business side- hey it makes sense. Tough times, call for tough decisions. There are a lot of people still on the unemployment line.  Many of the layoffs focused on reducing redundancy and streamlining operations.  Sounds like a match to me.

Monday, April 25^th at 1:30 the Committee on Natural Resources will hear testimony on this bill.  If I was a betting man, I would not bet on its success to get out of committee.  Not because of the merit of the idea, but more because I have lost faith that our elective officials know how to be leaders. I don’t believe any of them will have the balls to open this line of discussion up for debate.  While this bill is about CARB, a subject close to my business, make it about education a subject close to my heart- we still need to have the debate, because we are going broke. Painful, some not so painful- AB 1332- but painful cuts are going to have to be made and we have created a governing body where no one is willing to sacrifice their lamb because they KNOW others won’t do the same. Instead of doing what is right for this state over the long run, they are worried about the here and now, and their own hide.  To make it worse, the average citizen has already given up and is going to let them get away with it.  

I am sending emails to the committee members anyway.  I believe our elected officials must know we expect results. Results that fix this budget mess and ones that make California the place to do business and a better place to live. Join me.

My Best, Mary

Mary Fleet Manager Wall AB 1332, budget, California Fuel, CARB, economic recovery, Tim Donnelly

Since the election, I have not known what to say. I mean really, has everyone lost their mind?  Lets face it, we have to cut expenses and we will likely have to pay taxes in order to pay down debt.  That, or we stick our head in the sand and let our children and theirs figure this mess out.  California is going deeper into debt every day and eventually, even the federal government will stop loaning us money. Here is an excerpt from an article posted today on WSJ online, by Allysia Finley.  I included the link below so you could read the entire article. Browse the comments too, there are like minded people out there. I wonder if they voted?

My Best, Mary

CALIFORNIA: THE LINDSAY LOHAN OF STATES

Sacramento is headed for trouble again, and it shouldn’t expect a bailout.

Allysia Finley Op-Ed – Wall Street Journal – November 8, 2010

Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You’re the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.

After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We’d feel sorry for you if you didn’t constantly flip us the bird.

Instead, we’re making bets on how long it will be before your next meltdown. Oh, wait—you’re already melting down.

You’ve racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn’t include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you’ll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years.

Your government’s run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they’re not taxing or spending, they’re creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren’t for your sunny climate.

Which may explain why you’re so obsessed with climate change. If your climate changes, no one, including your Hollywood friends, would tolerate you anymore. So you’ve created a law to tax carbon emissions—no matter that it will kill jobs.

You appropriately give your government low marks—28% approval for outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 16% for the legislature—yet you continue to re-elect the politicians who got you into this mess. Not a single incumbent state legislator lost re-election this year, including one Democrat who died a month ago (no joke). What’s scarier is that you’ve just given almost all of the keys to statewide offices to Democrats.

Jerry Brown will be your new (old) governor. This is the man who acted as a gateway drug to your spending addiction three decades ago when he gave public-sector employees collective bargaining rights. Helping enforce your wacky laws will be Lt. Gov-elect Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who flouted state law by allowing same-sex marriage. On the plus side, he has nice hair and loves you just the way you are.

You’ve also just re-elected Barbara Boxer (that’s Senator Barbara Boxer) to a fourth term. She boasted on election night that it’s her “eleventh straight election victory, and what a sweet one it is . . . [since] everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink, and the stove and the oven and everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents, millions and millions of dollars.”

We’ve tried to help you, California. Some spent millions on campaigns to entice you to change your reckless behavior. And you told them to kick rocks. So here’s our final warning: When you inevitably crash and burn, don’t count on us to bail you out.

Entire Article

Mary Fleet Manager Wall Allysia Finley, budget, California, DeWitt Petroleum, Federal Government, WSJ

Does anyone have a bugle?  I need to borrow a bugle, take some lessons, grab the music for Taps and then off to our cardlocks where today we laid the hold open latches on our gasoline nozzles to rest.  As you stand, next to your car filling it up with the world’s cleanest gasoline, you can thank VST out of Springboro, Ohio and the California Air Resources Board.  Hold tightly, don’t let go of the handle, don’t walk away, because that clean gasoline will stop flowing into your car.  Just stand there, squeeze with all your might and watch the gallons click by, watch the dollars click higher, and thank CARB and VST when you notice one of them keeps right on clicking even higher tomorrow, next week and next year. 

Until regulators are held accountable for their mistakes. Until they must actually PAY for these mistakes,  (oddly they have not offered to reimburse us for the nozzles they said we must use and no longer can use)  we will continue to have bureaucrats create rules to maintain their jobs. Rules that have very little added benefit to us the citizens, AKA their bosses, and often times rules that do more harm than good.

Come with me little one. Grab some hot coco on this cold Southern California day, snuggle up to some global warming and stay awhile. I will tell you the story of our dearly departed MTBE, mandated not too long ago…

My Best, M

Mary Fleet Manager Wall CARB, DeWitt, diesel, EVR, MTBE, Nozzle, VST

Ok, hang on a second…I will be right with you…one more second…whew, who knew wrestling the soap box away from my dad would be such hard work.  Here it is and here I stand.  It has been some time since we have had much of interest to rant, I mean talk, about, but leave it to the California Air Resource Board , to strike again.

Many of you will remember that gas stations around the state had to “upgrade” their vapor recovery system by April of 2009 in order to catch a minute amount of additional vapors at the pump.  As part of this upgrade we were required to install CARB “certified” nozzles. Not to bore you but, there were two possible systems certified to meet the requirement, the balance system was installed in 30% of the stations and the only nozzle certified for use with that system was made by a company named VST. 

So when a mandated, certified, “commercially available”, more expensive, lesser warranted nozzle does not work….Well, you go to the other certified nozzles, right?

Ahhh, my mistake there is no other certified nozzle that works with the balance system….So now what do gas station operators have to do with the 35,000 nozzles in CA?  Well according to CARB and the State Fire Marshall, we have to remove the hold open latches on our existing $300 nozzles. We can then get in line to turn those nozzles in for $100 credit towards a $300 newly “certified” nozzle.

In the mean time, as of October 15^th, 2010,  every one of us trying to fuel at an affected station will have to stand by the tank and hold the nozzle open…

As if we didn’t hate to get gas enough…

My Best, Mary

Mary Fleet Manager Wall California Fuel, CARB, fuel price increases, fuel purchases, Gas Stations, Vapor recovery, VST

Well my older, wiser sister (pick your own emphasis) kindly pointed out that part of last week’s blog was a little cryptic. So rather than try to explain what I meant, I thought I would let you read the article I referenced for yourself.  I am a fan of Charley Reese.  He says he is conservative, but substitute Newt Gingrich in for Nancy Pelosi, and really the message of the article doesn’t change.  In fact, when it was originally written in 1985, Tip O’Neill was the Speaker named.

“But regardless of whose fault it is, most politicians today are not human beings. You want to pry open their mouths and shout into the darkness, ‘Hello! Is there a human being in there?’ Buried under all that lust for office, all that fear of offending a contributor? I know there must be.” (Charley Reese, Conservative Chronicle, September 8, 1993, p. 17)

It is not just our right to vote, it is our responsibility. My Best, Mary

THE 545 PEOPLE
RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL
OF AMERICA’S WOES
BY CHARLEY REESE

 545 PEOPLE–By Charlie Reese

 Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.  Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

 You and I don’t propose a federal budget.  The president does. You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.  The House of Representatives does. You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

100 senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.  In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.  They have no legal authority.  They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.  The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.  They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.  No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget.  He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.  Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi.  She is the leader of the majority party.  She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.  If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility.  I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq, it’s because they want them in Iraq. If they do not receive social security, but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.  Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.  

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.  Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…

This article was taken from the Orlando Sentinel Star newspaper. The original article was written in 1985.

Mary Fleet Manager Wall Charley Reese, DeWitt, diesel, Diesel Exhaust Fulid, National budget, Vote 2010