Ugly Ass Opinion

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has begun enforcing the most stringent emissions standards ever implemented in the U.S. How nice for them. They’re about to cut off their nose to spite their holier-than-thou face. 

Truckers, who California seems to regard as the Antichrist in motor vehicle form, are no longer allowed to idle their trucks for more than 5 minutes when parked due to the evil emissions destroying the ozone. Non-compliance can result in a fine of up to $1,000 a day. Improved emissions sounds good on paper, but let’s try a little experiment, shall we?

This summer, when it’s 95 degrees outside, why don’t we have the Lawmakers of the Great State of California skip their cushy offices and sit in their vehicles with the air turned off all day. Eat, work and sleep in those cars. After a week of baking in the sun, they may have some clue just how ‘simple’ this solution really is.

Open a window, y’all should be just fine.

To push this horseshit legislation through, legislators tout the use of anti-idling devices as a viable alternative for trucks. Unfortunately, they require these devices meet California’s emissions standards. The problem is very few of them actually do. They also cost thousands of dollars per truck. In the age of $4 a gallon diesel, Owner / Operators are hanging on to their businesses by their fingernails–they don’t have that kind of cash to invest just to enter California.

All you legislative tree huggers sitting in your cushy chairs, I ask you to take note. You’ve made climate control impossible for living, breathing human beings. You’ve added fines up the wazoo for making their office and sleeping quarters simply bearable. And you’ve effectively shown that the Great State of California considers Emissions Standards more important than the human beings who can Die at those temperatures.

What’s wrong with you people? If somebody left a dog in a car under those conditions you’d throw them in jail.

Nice. Real nice.

And while CARB is sticking it to small business owners, lets not forget the $800 fines they like to hand out for worn or missing engine stickers. (Pssst! When you put a sticker on the side of an engine, it tends to burn off after awhile. If you want to fine someone, fine the manufacturers who put the damn things on there instead of on a stamped plate.)

These $800 fine-worthy stickers merely state an engine conforms to California’s standards. It doesn’t matter if the engine conforms, mind you–the fine isn’t for the engine…it’s for lack of a STICKER. 

Dumbasses.

Dear Governor Ah-nold: When you and your special ed CARB board make it almost impossible for truckers to do business in your state, they’ll stop. They’ll stop buying your $2,000 license plates. They’ll stop purchasing your $4.15 a gallon fuel 300 gallons at a time. They’ll stop spending money in your stores, restaurants and businesses and wave to the border as they drive on by. Not out of spite, out of simple math. They just can’t afford California anymore.

I hope you enjoy black bananas–I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of them this summer.

This article is an original post from www.UglyAssOpinion.com© Kelly L. Trainor 2008 All Rights Reserved