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The content of this letter is intended to express the disastrous
implications that the regulations which CARB proposes would have on
our small family owned business located in Grass Valley, CA.

We started our company in 1976 with one 1957 Studabaker 2-ton
truck. In the beginning we did whatever work we could find just to
make ends meet.  Slowly we added trucks and manpower as Nevada
County continued to grow. We built one warehouse, then another, and
then another until we finally out-grew our facilities and thus
acquired land closer to town, where we built our new facility,
moving in July of 1998.

Our family history dates back 74 years in the moving industry. 
Ernie Sowell, our father and name sake of the company, started
Ernie’s Van & Storage in 1935 in Berkeley, CA where it ran
continuously until 2001, when he sold the property and closed the
company.  We asked permission to use the family name when we
started our company, since it was well established at the time. Dad
graciously agreed to let us use the name with a warning that this
was our company to sink or swim with.  At first, thankfully we
learned to swim, slow and steady, keeping in mind the best advice
our father gave us, work hard, and be honest and fair.

If the regulations proposed by The California Air Resources Board
are approved, our family business dating back to 1935 will be
forced to shut it doors. The finances required to update or replace
our entire fleet of trucks that we have acquired slowly over the
course of the last 32 years are an impossibility for our company in
today’s economy where we are already struggling to remain in
business in this time of recession.

We are in no way opposed to CARB’s intentions of improving the air
quality in California. This is a matter that they and obviously
many others feel very passionately about. The problem with their
proposal lies in it being the responsibility of the business owner
to cover the costs involved in this transition.

How is it that the government can hand out billions of dollars to
companies that have dug their own grave, yet responsible business
owners must figure out how to come up with the cash to comply with
regulations that must be met in too short of a time frame? If CARB
is so passionate about resolving problems with the air quality in
California in such a small amount of time, why can it not be their
financial responsibility to insure that the funds for this sort of
project are covered in order to avoid shutting down hundreds of
companies within the state resulting in increased job loss and
further economic meltdown?

In addition, if CARB is attempting to pass this regulation for the
sake of the environment, it doesn’t make sense to simply discard
thousands of perfectly functioning trucks only to use up more of
our nation’s resources by replacing these vehicles that have many
more years of performance still ahead of them. Do they not
understand the severe amount of waste that would be produced from
such an event?

We as a family are proud of our service to California and wish for
many more years of providing quality care to all that give us the
privilege of serving them. We ask simply that greater thought is
given to the distress that this regulation would pose on businesses
throughout California as well as the economy and we plead with you
not to approve of regulations that will result in the end of all
that we have created through our hard work over the years.


Sincerely,


Douglas Sowell

Stuart Sowell

Ernie’s Van & Storage