Friday, May 9, 2008

Truck Cargo Exemption Granted

On May 2, the CHP issued an extension that will allow the agricultural haulers to use their traditional means of securing bins, boxes, cartons and tubs through April of 2009. The exemption reads:

1. All current and hereafter issued agricultural commodity cargo securement exemptions will remain in effect until 2359 hours on April 30, 2009, or upon implementation of the regulatory requirements, which are currently being reviewed by FMCSA.
2. All other conditions as set forth in the original agricultural commodity cargo securement exemption dated June 15, 2007, remain in effect (i.e. monthly reports).

We’re still waiting for the initial set of draft regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to be made public. We anticipate that something will be made public soon. Once the regulations are released, there will be extended time for public comment and possible revisions. Also, once the regulatory process is complete the CHP will need additional time to develop and implement their enforcement procedures. Therefore, we should be able to get through this year without too much disruption of agricultural hauls.

CDFA

Rayne Thompson, who was the Ag Council’s director of government affairs from 2001 to 2004, was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the position of deputy secretary for legislation and policy. After she left the Council, Rayne held the position of director of international trade and plant health for the California Farm Bureau Federation. She started her duties with CDFA on Wednesday.

Renewable Fuel Standards

The Ag Council joined with a number of other organizations representing the livestock, dairy and poultry industries in a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger urging him to support a 50% waiver of the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) mandate from corn and grain based ethanol. The letter is supportive of Texas Governor, Rick Perry, who is seeking relief from the federal mandate requiring a production increase to 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015 and 36 billion gallons by 2022. Perry and others, citing rising food prices, are advocating that rules should be relaxed in order to inject more corn into the food supply for livestock and to encourage farmers to plant other crops. California producers are facing severe economic hardship due to the rising price of corn which is driven by the artificial demand set by the RFS. Our letter also supports a more flexible approach to biofuels policy which wouldn’t mandate a threshold for the use of certain biofuels. Instead, we urge that a suite of biofuels and technologies be employed to meet fuel specifications.

Denham Recall

Budget related politics were a big reason why Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata initiated a recall election against Republican Senator Jeff Denham from Merced. Now budget related politics are the reason why the recall has been “recalled.” This is the full text of Pereta’s rational for pulling the plug:

"Like all of you, I've been worried a lot about the economy - falling home prices, rising gas prices - and how hard it's getting for people to find a job. I've talked with both Treasurer Lockyer and Controller Chiang about the state's cash situation - and the need to do everything we can to reach an agreement on the budget. A long stalemate is the last thing we need. Without a budget - we run out of cash - the richest state in America gone broke!

We won't be paying our bills - and we won't be giving our schools, our emergency rooms and our police the resources they need. So I met with Republican Leader Dave Cogdill - and I asked him how we could clear the decks and start making some progress. One issue kept coming up. The Denham recall. So today - in the spirit of putting politics aside to solve problems - I'm ending the recall campaign. You're bound to ask, so let me tell you - there was no deal, no quid pro quo. This is my call - and my best judgment about how to stop the long, slow slide into another long stalemate. I hope it pays off, because the same old rhetoric won't get the job done. Let me also say this to the people who have devoted so much time and effort on the recall: thank you. You've already changed things for the better. The vote we couldn't get last year to close the tax loophole for yacht owners -we got that vote. The vote we couldn't get to help homeowners facing foreclosure - we got that vote. You put everyone here on notice - and I don't think people are going to forget that anytime soon."