Tillis, Burr Fighting To Save Obama Era Big Government Regulation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It appears that North Carolina’s two senators are quite responsive to special interests with money, even when it means hurting the folks back home.

Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis have joined a dozen other lawmakers in lobbying EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to keep an Obama era trucking regulation that would force used, refitted transport trucks (gliders) to meet the more onerous standards required of new trucks.

“During the Obama administration, the EPA created a new rule to regulate glider trucks the same way as new trucks. Glider trucks are built by pairing a new chassis with an older diesel engine and powertrain. Glider trucks cost roughly 25 percent less compared to new trucks, making them more affordable for America’s trucking industry.

Steve Milloy, a Trump EPA transition team member, contends that the Obama-era regulation “would have essentially shuttered the glider industry.”

Sens. Capito, Tillis, and Burr have not responded to a request for comment from Breitbart News about their support for an Obama-era trucking regulation.”

The move is protectionism for special interests, pure and simple. The big truck makers don’t want to compete with the glider industry, which sells trucks for less money.

And that means jobs here in the Old North State.

“Carl Howard, the vice president and general manager of H&H Freightliner, a North Carolina trucking company, reacted to the news that Sen. Burr supports the Obama-era trucking rule in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News.

Howard told Breitbart News:

The EPA rule eliminates our glider business in 2020. Without a new means to replace these sales we will see about a 40 percent decrease in vehicle sales. The term “decades of consistent regulation” regarding this is a joke. The only thing consistent with the regulation is that it changes. I think someone has pulled the wool over Burr’s eyes regarding this, and pretty disappointed he did not look at his constituents, or manufacturers in his state. The largest manufacturer of the unassembled kits and new trucks has 2 plants in North Carolina. The manufacturers against it are not doing it for environmental concerns, they are doing it because they do not produce glider kits. Who wouldn’t support a possible reduction in competition? Further, the perception is false that gliders put dirty trucks on the road, old worn out dirty trucks are pulled off and replaced with gliders. They replace dirty trucks, not create them.”

Big businesses often lobby to institute or maintain burdensome regulations, environmental and others, because they know that while they have the resources to comply, smaller companies – a.k.a. competition – do not.

This is the kind of cronyism that fills the Swamp with muck, and Burr and Tillis are essentially fighting to keep the Swamp full at the expense of North Carolina business owners.

Read more from Breitbart here.