Comment Log Display

"Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the recent EJAC
community workshops. I own a small business located in
Sonora,Tuol.County. Although I don't have any employees I am
impacted by the cost of living and environmental regulations.
 
We have found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the rising
costs of fuel and utilities, much of which are related to existing
environmental and climate change laws that are much stricter than
those in other states.
 
I'm not just a business owner, my family and my employees live and
work in this community. EJAC was created to be a voice for
vulnerable communities like my region and make recommendations
under the AB 32 Scoping Plan. We support reasonable regulations to
improve our air quality, but strongly believe these regulations
must be cost-effective and provide measurable environmental
improvements that demonstrably justify the cost.
 
California already has the cleanest energy and the lowest emitting
industrial facilities in the country. And small businesses and
low-to-moderate income communities already spend a higher than
average percentage of their budgets on utilities and energy.
 
Small businesses are a vital contributor to California's economy
and make up the largest job-creating sector in the state. Before
EJAC advocates for costlier regulations that could put a small
business like mine out of business and our employees out of work,
please consider the costs, and promote only those that are
affordable and will deliver truly meaningful air quality benefits
for our communities.

Furthermore, some of the restrictions already implemented are self
defeating. One example would be the introduction of adjustment
resistant carburetors on landscaping equipment. The result of this
is home owners replacing otherwise good equipment & adding to the
landfill crisis by dumping perfectly good equipment.A diesel engine
is still the most energy efficient engine developed and I strongly
disagree with your efforts to eliminate these. 

As a species the human race has developed a system that relies on
ever increasing populations to become consumers to buy ever
increasing products. Furthermore products are increasingly
"disposable" instead of repairable. Now we have the ability to view
from space our tiny planet, how long will it take to come to the
inevitable conclusion that the only true environmental
responsibility is to reduce our numbers?   
 
Thank you.