Fwd: [Mercedes] California Dodges a Smog Bullet

["David R. Lefebvre" <drl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Of interest to all (your state may be next):

>From: "andylit@domain.elided" <andylit@domain.elided>
>To: mercedes@domain.elided
>Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 13:00:58 -0400
>
>Tuesday April 15, 2003, 10:56:17 PM
>
>SACRAMENTO -- With Jay Leno and the rest of California's classic car buffs
>on his case, State Sen. Dean Florez has dropped his proposal to require smog
>checks for cars as old as 1958 models.
>
>Leno, "The Tonight Show" host who has a large collection of vintage autos,
>personally called Florez's office to lobby against the plan.
>
>The lawmaker was also inundated with letters, e-mails and phone calls from
>many other members of the highly organized hobby car community.
>
>One of their tools was a cartoon depicting Florez in his state-leased SUV
>chasing classic cars out of California.
>Florez was forced to back down on the bill, one in a package of 10 bills
>aimed at cleaning up the air in the Central Valley, before it even got its
>first legislative hearing.
>
>The bill, SB 708, isn't dead, but it has been amended to crack down on cars
>that emit visible smoke. Originally, it called for requiring regular smog
>checks and repairs for cars up to 45 model years old. If in effect this
>year, it would apply to cars made in 1958 or later. That would have replaced
>the state's existing exemption for cars older than 30 model years, which
>this year is 1973.
>
>"Given all the fights we have on all the other air pollution bills," Florez
>said, "it wasn't going to help to push that one."
>
>He said classic car fans made a convincing argument that most of the oldest
>cars on the road, while they may be some of the worst polluters, aren't
>usually driven to and from work daily.
>
>"We told the classic car folks that we're going to continue to talk to
>them," Florez continued, "but that was just too much of a detailed type of
>proposal."
>
>Florez's legislative aide, Michael Rubio, said Leno called after reading a
>newspaper article about the smog bills.
>" He said he wanted to know what the deal was with (SB) 708," Rubio said.
>"Several days later, he called back and said, 'You've got me thinking now.'
>And I said 'Can I start at the beginning?'"
>
>He said Leno listened carefully and discussed his thoughts on the smog
>problem and the bill at some length, urging Florez to carefully distinguish
>between older cars that are driven for basic transportation and those that
>are merely exhibited most of the time.
>
>Other problems, he said, are the difficulty of getting repair parts for
>older cars and the fact that emission controls were not mandated on cars
>until the late 1960s.
>
>The same arguments were made by the classic car community's chief lobbyist,
>Steve McDonald of the Special Equipment Marketing Association, a trade group
>of manufacturers, retailers, publishers and restorers.
>
>"Obviously we're thrilled that the senator has agreed to modify the
>legislation and refocus the target on what we believe is a more effective
>one, that being smoking vehicles," McDonald said.
>
>So are hobbyists like Jan VanderPool of Bakersfield, who, with his fiancie,
>owns three vintage Ford Mustangs.
>" That's definitely a big relief to me," he said.
>
>VanderPool said it took years and a lot of effort to get the rolling
>exemption from smog checks for cars that are more than 30 years old enacted
>in 1997.
>
>Florez and his staff appeared surprised, if not shellshocked, at the size
>and aggressiveness of the lobbying campaign against the smog check proposal.
>
>But it was no surprise to VanderPool, who has been through similar drills
>before when legislation was proposed that helped or hurt car hobbyists.
>
>"A lot of us have had to get pretty political," he said. "We've had to get
>active and kind of watch our backs."

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End of bmw-digest V9 #2430
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