SACRAMENTO - Assemblyman Roger Niello has led a bi-partisan group of legislators to send a letter to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) requesting a temporary suspension of on and off-road diesel regulations that have taken effect within the last year.

In all, 52 members of the legislature including both Republicans and Democrats have signed a letter that acknowledges the need to reduce particulate matter, but expresses concern that these regulations will have a further devastating effect on unemployment and the economy and have the potential to ruin an industry that is relied on heavily for the movements of goods and thus the general health of our economy.

Further, Proposition 1B, approved by the voters in November, 2006, contained the authority for $750 million in bond funds for grants and loans to assist with the retrofit of truck fleets. To date, only about a third of these funds have been available to the industry as the state's deteriorated credit rating has prevented the sale of bonds.

"Under normal circumstances, these regulations that were set forth by CARB were going to be very onerous and costly to comply with. But given the current state of our economy, and the lack of available bond funds that were promised to help with the costs of retrofit, it is certainly reasonable to request that CARB delay the implementation of these diesel regulations for at least a year," said Assemblyman Niello.