Legislative Alert CA

[cookiedan@domain.elided (Daniel Nees)]

Good News for California Hobbyists…
               Recently, the California Senate
Transportation Committee passed a SEMA-authored "Repair and Upgrade"
bill by an 11-0 vote. Sponsored by Senator Maurice Johannessen
(R-District 4), S.B. 1056 would give aftermarket emissions reduction
upgrade equipment the chance to compete as an alternative to the state's
vehicle scrappage programs. This bill results from the simple fact that
scrappage programs are damaging to vehicle hobbies and produce few
actual pollution benefits.
               S.B. 1056 would require the Air
Resources Board to run a pilot program offering owners of older vehicles
an incentive to voluntarily install an emissions upgrade system. SEMA
Vice President of Government and Technical Affairs Chris Kersting, who
testified at the committee hearing, noted that "the resulting emissions
improvements would be turned into emissions reductions which the state
could keep or trade on the market. A similar repair and upgrade program
operated by San Diego county has generated twice the emissions
reductions per dollar as California's vehicle scrappage programs."
               Also of good news to California
hobbyists, another Johannessen-sponsored bill (S.B. 1058), easing the
burden of emissions testing for owners of aftermarket-equipped vehicles
by limiting visual and functional testing requirements, was also passed
by the Transportation Committee. This "tailpipe-only test" bill would
assure that if a car passes the tailpipe test, in most cases, it will be
free to go. Currently, if aftermarket emissions equipment is found
during a visual and functional inspection, cars are often referred to a
referee station for additional testing. Both S.B. 1056 and S.B. 1058 are
heard next by the California Senate Appropriations Committee.
…and Some Bad News
               Tempering the legislative wins for
repair-upgrade and tailpipe-only testing were defeats of pro-hobbyist
bills S.B. 285 and S.B. 296, both sponsored by Senator Richard Mountjoy
(R-District 29) in the Senate Transportation Committee. S.B. 285 sought
to exempt older vehicles (those manufactured prior to 1974, and
beginning January 1, 2003, any vehicle 30 or more years old) from random
roadside emissions testing. S.B. 296 would have exempted vehicles driven
5,000 miles or less from the SMOG check, recognizing that collector
vehicles are infrequently operated and have a negligible effect on
California's pollution problem.
               These bills were given a second
chance after failing during a prior Transportation Committee hearing
and, despite a strong lobbying effort by the Association of California
Car Clubs (ACCC) and SEMA, failed to garner enough votes the second time
around. ACCC official Jerry Effle has indicated that efforts supporting
the principles behind these two bills will continue until each becomes
law.

_____Dan Nees_____
cookiedan@domain.elided

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