The California Trucking Assn. delivered a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday, seeking to allow federally approved diesel fuel into the state until prices meet the national diesel fuel average.

The association says California truckers pay an average 53 cents more per gallon than their national competitors, with diesel fuel prices above $2.10 per gallon (a record $2.49 in San Diego).
The CTA claims that since 1993 when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandated a California-only diesel fuel, oil companies were not just supportive of the proposed rule, but the beneficiaries. CTA says oil companies convinced the government that this fuel recipe would only cost 4 to 6 cents per gallon more than federal fuel. The prices have been significantly higher, ranging from 25 to 40 cents per gallon more than the national average until April 2004.
"This is a clear and heartfelt example of the barriers to keeping jobs in California," said Al Nunes, president of the CTA. "Our members are being economically damaged by their inability to pass through California fuel prices because freight prices are based on the national diesel fuel average. What started as a clean air program has created such economic ruin that it has brought drivers to the point of withholding their work in Stockton."
"A clean air program quickly became a loophole for federal trucks to drive more miles in California from other states and compete at an advantage against our home state trucks," said Stephanie Williams, senior vice president of CTA. "CARB diesel is a lose-lose situation that takes freight revenue and high paid jobs out of California. Environmental targets were not met and out-of-state trucks are driving more miles in the state and paying less taxes for our roads."
Williams said rumors that the diesel supply issue has led Energy Commission bureaucrats to plan for diesel fuel rationing has California truckers fuming. Rather than allowing the federal fuel supply in California, the state is evaluating selectively eliminating California-based trucking companies by limiting the amount if fuel they can access.
"Rationing diesel fuel in California means international truckers will deliver California freight," said Williams. "We need competition and we need it now. The consequences of ignoring the oil companies’ iron grip on pricing is to chase transportation jobs out of the state just like manufacturing jobs were chased out. California's recovery can't happen until the transportation sector is economically viable."