Senate committee votes to exempt more cars from smog requirements

Older cars cause a disproportionate amount of smog and particulate pollution. If anything, California should be making the rules more strict on old cars, not relaxing them. But just in time for Earth Day, the California Senate Transportation Committee voted to move the smog exemption cut-off year from 1975 to 1980. This will exempt well over 100,000 cars from having to use any smog equipment in California:

A new bill proposed by California Senator Ted Gaines (R-El Dorado) that would change the California smog exemption year cutoff from 1975 to 1980 passed through the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing earlier this week. The next step for SB 1239 is to be approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. The bill passed the first committee in a bipartisan vote of six votes for and five against.

If passed, the bill would exempt cars prior to the 1981 model year from California’s biennial smog-check inspections and would open the door for non-CARB (California Air Research Board) drivetrain modifications.

The deciding vote was cast by Senator Bob Wieckowski, a Bay Area Democrat who represents the 10th district in Alameda County. One of his 2014 campaign themes was to promote clean technology.

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Can’t afford a new car? California will give you up to $12,000 to buy a new one

Here is another one of those ridiculous subsidies for the auto industry:

Individuals in disadvantaged census tracts who make up to four times the federal poverty level will be able to trade in their pre-1994 models and receive as much as $12,000 toward the cost of a new or used fuel-efficient vehicle.

A $4.8 million pilot, expected to replace about 600 cars, is currently rolling out in the San Joaquin Valley and South Coast air districts. The Air Resources Board plans to expand the program, which is funded by cap-and-trade auction revenue, by about 10 times next year.

Whereas cap-and-trade started with the best of intentions, it really has turned into a joke of a program. It provides no dedicated funding for bike projects (and only minimal support for transit services), and instead is being used to subsidize private car purchases.

Even viewed as an anti-poverty measure, this is a bad idea. Car ownership is really costly, and it is a mistake to encourage low-income families to hang onto cars when there are much lower cost transportation alternatives.

 

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Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Oh, my!

State researchers must redo a report that concluded 3,500 people prematurely die each year due to diesel pollution – a finding that was used to justify imposing the nation’s strictest regulations on diesel engines.

The California Air Resources Board ordered a new report after the employee who wrote it was found to have lied about his academic credentials. That decision was made Wednesday after an air board hearing on the rules, which critics want to delay because of concerns over the cost of retrofitting and replacing the polluting engines.

The head of the air board, Mary Nichols, apologized for not telling all board members about the problem with the report’s author, Hien Tran, who claimed he had a doctorate in statistics from UC Davis, when he actually had obtained the degree from an unaccredited distance learning school. Nichols knew about the problem before the board voted on the regulation.

Tran has since been demoted.

You mean, he wasn’t fired?

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