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EPA regs ‘putting small independent owner-operator truckers out of business…not able to conform to strict & unjustified EPA regs’

https://www.thenakedtruthreport.com/post/randy-thomas-loves-the-supreme-court-ruling-in-west-virginia-vs-epa

Kathleen Wells – As many of you know, I have a cause for exposing liberals and their antics and host a local radio show, The Naked Truth Report, that airs on AM870 in Los Angeles.  I am particularly concerned with local issues. Recently, I have been focusing on overbearing governmental regulations. I have had epidemiologist Prof. Jim Enstrom and independent trucker Randy Thomas on my show as guests to discuss how the strict regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, had caused harm putting small independent owner-operator truckers out of business because they could not conform to the strict and unjustified EPA regulations. The recent Supreme Court ruling, West Virginia vs EPA, was good news for an independent trucker from Watts, California, Randy Thomas.

Randy is an owner-operator of an independent trucking firm from 1971- 2010. He started with one truck and grew the business to a fleet of fourteen trucks. Then the Obama administration, Mayor Villaraigosa and the Teamsters Union embraced the Climate Change Initiative and the Green New Deal in 2008. Naturally, all the Democratic politicians embraced this clean energy policy regardless of how burdensome and unscientific the cost. Jimmy Hoffa Jr, informed and required members that same year, that older trucks were burning dirty by emitting nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide. In order to clean the emissions up, truckers could retrofit a Diesel Particulate Filter, DPF, system or purchase a new truck having the system. The DPF system is a particulate trap that is now required as a mechanism on newer trucks to be in compliance with clean energy.

Rebuilding engines to add the DPF system is not viable. Because the State of California adopted the Climate Change agenda, seven black American owner-operated trucking businesses in Los Angeles , Compton and Watts closed. Young black American men have no examples of black American men owning trucking businesses in Los Angeles. Randy was put out of business when he was informed to turn in his non-compliant vehicles to be destroyed. Later, by accident, while watching a load of trucks on YouTube, Randy happened to run across one of his old trucks in Vietnam. He recognized the truck because of the unique emblem on the truck. Why is a truck that was earmarked to be destroyed in Vietnam? I suppose some Democrat lined their pocket with a trucker’s misfortune.

The DPF systems ended up being ineffective and actually never did work. But the DPF systems did simply burn the engine. Now, clean energy enthusiasts are off to a new agenda item, requiring truckers to purchase electric trucks. Their new fad is ineffective as what used to be a short instance to fill a fuel tank, now takes hours to charge and has a smaller range. The goods are not getting through as quickly which slows the economy.

The real impact of these environmental initiatives and the EPA is not so much a better environment but instead, honest hard-working Americans who lose their livelihood. Today, AB5, which goes into effect soon will essentially have the same results. The new regulations require independent truckers to obtain licenses and insurance that trucking officials say could increase their annual operating costs by $20,000. The EPA says the requirements are necessary because they claim that the Clean Air Act regulations will generate $2 trillion in benefits and prevent 230,000 early deaths. However, this claim is not supported by the actual evidence that the deaths were caused by air pollution. According to retired Prof. Jim Enstrom, there is a misuse of environmental epidemiology and biostatistics.  Further,  the Clean Air Act claims have been contested for 30 years. Yet environmentalists and scientists ignore the data, despite being given the evidence consistently over the years.  Thus the problem is a political agenda and not an environmental issue. The Democratic Party is on a vicious cycle of void and nothingness causing chaos and destruction.

Since the civil rights movement and era, the Democratic Party has heralded itself as being the party of the working man and particularly the party of black Americans.  As a native of Los Angeles, I’ve witnessed from the 1970s to today that black Americans never had many small businesses in the main business area in South Central Los Angeles, Crenshaw Blvd. And in fact,  the number of black American small businesses has decreased over the decades not increased. By the way, there is a direct correlation between the lack of black American small businesses and black Americans facing zero median wealth by 2053. This result despite rolling with the Democratic Party for 7 decades.  I have said on my radio show black Americans should have businesses up and down Crenshaw Blvd, north to Wilshire, or at least Pico Blvd down south in Inglewood. Black Americans live in these surrounding neighborhoods or at least we used to — which is another story for another day. But in all the decades, that has never been the case. For the most part, Crenshaw Blvd has essentially been empty and dilapidated buildings. Thus, I’ve found it perplexing that this claim by the Democratic Party of being champions for the working man cannot be taken seriously by serious people.

Why black Americans have supported the Democratic Party all these decades is beyond me. There is just no evidence to do so.  But I must not forget that the Democratic Party and the media have convinced most black Americans that Trump and the Republican Party are racists and even more insidious: white supremacists.  Thus, it doesn’t matter that in all these decades of support for democrats, one-third of black Americans are poor and another third are a paycheck away from poverty. However, just don’t show support for a man or a party that the party that has kept two-thirds of their group poor or near poverty tells you not to support.  Racism trumps poverty.  It’s alright to be poor just as long as you never support a racist. However. I take the position that the destruction or regression of black America is the epitome of white supremacy.

In an effort to address how EPA regulations place economic hardships and an undue burden on small businesses and particularly the black American community, scientists, environmentalists, and the academic community in Los Angeles (UCLA in particular ) Prof. Enstrom and I are ignored. I sent a few emails out to ask these green enthusiasts to be guests on my radio show. However, my requests go unanswered.  On June 8, I even provided a public comment with the EPA CASAC Ozone Review panel and none of those esteemed scientists even had a question for me. Later, I reached out to Christine Fuller, a couple of times via voicemail and email, who is a CASAC panel member and resides and worked at Georgia State University, but she never returned.

Prof. James Enstrom has been particularly steadfast. On June 8, 2022, California small businesses wrote an open letter  that opposed the CARB Climate Policy Regulations and Advanced Clean Car Rule (ACC II).   UCLA environmental law expert Cara Horowitz, who is co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the law school filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the EPA’s position. She describes West Virginia vs EPA ruling as a power grab by the court aggregating power to the court allowing it to strike down other administrative regulations and actions.  UCLA law professor Blake Emerson who teaches administrative law and executive power describes the ruling as preventing economic fairness.  How is economic fairness prevented when the EPA regulations have put black American small business owners like Randy Thomas out of business. I take the position that these experts and green enthusiasts have a theory at their disposal, not real-life experiences. What else could explain black Americans being at the bottom of the economic ladder, despite being in this country since the founding?

Everything is topsy-turvy, no doubt. But I remain optimistic, even thrilled like Randy with the Supreme Court’s holding in West Virginia vs EPA.

The very notion that Americans will be bullied into embracing the Green New Deal is appalling to me. Given my optimistic nature, I am betting on Americans to do the right thing and make the right choices. How can I as a black American not love America? I have had a great family and the best daddy in the world. Would that be possible elsewhere?

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