12/15/09-Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, says he wants to let voters decide whether to suspend implementation of the state law that is intended to cap greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2020.
Logue says he’s getting encouragement from truckers.
“Absolutely, truck drivers are supporting it. They have the most at stake because it will cost them millions of dollars,” Logue told Land Line Now.
Approved as AB32, the law allows the California Air Resources Board to create many new regulations, many of them affecting trucking. It also includes an emergency provision to allow the governor to delay implementation for up to one year in the event of “extraordinary circumstances, catastrophic events or threat of significant economic harm.”
Logue says the time has come to suspend the three-year-old emissions requirement. And he says there are nearly two dozen lawmakers onboard to pursue a state referendum for the fall ballot that would tie implementation of AB32 to California’s unemployment rate.
“We want to suspend the cap and trade legislation that was signed into law in 2006. Our unemployment rate is at 12-and-one-half percent. At the time of the signing of AB32, the unemployment rate was below 5 percent,” Logue says.
“It is our desire to see that California recover economically and fiscally before we put the huge draconian regulations on business, which will drive unemployment rates even higher.”
Logue wants to suspend the statewide emissions plan until the unemployment rate dips below 5-and-one-half percent for a full year.
He says there is public support for the change. A Rasmussen poll shows that 71 percent of the public is more concerned about the economy than global warming.
“The public is speaking loud and clear. Let’s stop with the social engineering and experiments and let’s get back to sound economic fundamentals,” he says.
The California Legislature can take up a measure to add a referendum to the November 2010 ballot during the regular session that starts next month.