TO ALL CALIFORNIA CAR OWNERS-BILL TO MOVE SMOG TEST TO 81-MA

[pintopower]

If you are in California, you'd better email all of your reps as well as email everyone you know and inform them about this bill. If not, go ahead and keep smogging your cars. I sent my emails off, and called everyone.

California Introduces Bill to Exempt pre-1981 Vehicles From Emissions Inspection Requirement

In 2004, legislation was enacted to repeal California’s rolling emissions-test exemption for vehicles 30 years old and older and replace it with a law requiring the lifetime testing of all 1976 and newer model-year vehicles. This year, a bill has been introduced in the California Senate (S.B. 1224) by Senator Doug LaMalfa (Senator.LaMalfa@senate.ca.gov ) to exempt all motor vehicles prior to the 1981 model year from the emissions inspection requirement. The bill will be considered in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on March 27, 2012.

We Urge You to Contact All Members of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee (Contact Info Below) Immediately To Request Their Support for S.B. 1224
•S.B. 1224 recognizes the minimal impact of pre-1981vehicles on emissions and air quality.


•S.B. 1224 acknowledges that pre-1981 vehicles still constitute a minuscule portion of the overall vehicle population and are a poor source from which to look for emissions reduction.


•S.B. 1224 endorses the fact that pre-1981 vehicles are overwhelmingly well-maintained and infrequently driven (a fraction of the miles each year as a new vehicle).


•For years, legislators, regulators and stationary source polluters have felt the heat from failed efforts to meet air quality goals and have looked to older cars as a convenient scapegoat, using false data and inflated annual mileage assumptions to further their case. S.B. 1224 helps validate the truth. The old car hobby should not continue to carry the burden of past mistakes!

DON’T DELAY! Please contact members of the California Senate Transportation and Housing Committee immediately to request their support of S.B. 1224. Please e-mail a copy of your letter to Steve McDonald at stevem@sema.org. Also, please forward this Alert to your fellow car enthusiasts. Urge them to join the SAN and help defend the hobby! Thank you for your assistance.

Senate Transportation and Housing Committee

To e-mail all members of the Committee, copy and paste the email address block below:

senator.desaulnier@sen.ca.gov; senator.gaines@senate.ca.gov; senator.harman@sen.ca.gov; Senator.Kehoe@sen.ca.gov; Senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov; senator.pavley@sen.ca.gov; michael.rubio@sen.ca.gov; senator.simitian@sen.ca.gov; Senator.Wyland@senate.ca.gov

Senator Mark DeSaulnier (Chair)
Phone: (916) 651-4007
Email: senator.desaulnier@sen.ca.gov

Senator Ted Gaines (Vice Chair)
Phone: (916) 651-4001
Email: senator.gaines@senate.ca.gov

Senator Tom Harman
Phone: (916) 651-4035
Email: senator.harman@sen.ca.gov

Senator Christine Kehoe
Phone: (916) 651-4039
Email: Senator.Kehoe@sen.ca.gov

Senator Alan Lowenthal
Phone: (916) 651-4027
Email: Senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov

Senator Fran Pavley
Phone: (916) 651-4023
Email: senator.pavley@sen.ca.gov

Senator Michael Rubio
Phone: (916) 651-4016
Email: michael.rubio@sen.ca.gov

Senator Joe Simitian
Phone: (916) 651-4011
Email: senator.simitian@sen.ca.gov

Senator Mark Wyland
Phone: (916) 651-4038
Email: Senator.Wyland@senate.ca.gov

[norcal78]

Ive been emailing them daily. I would love to modify my 78 but with all the smog junk its hard.

[htchevyii]

I doubdt Gov Brown will let it happen, but I did email all of them.

[calvinconrad]

i just emailed all of them.
i urge you all to do the same.

[pintopower]

day is the day of the vote. I have emailed and called all of the senators and I can only hope that all of you in California have done the same. Due to the POOR email response I got from the 300+ people I emailed and the six sites I posted on, I am not holding my breath. I thank those of you that did. Once again, it seems people can complain about everything but should they have a chance to make a difference, they would rather watch TV. I hope I am wrong.

Now, conversely, if this bill passes, I would recommend that once again all IMPORTANT smog components on the car remain. Modern catalytic converters rob next to no HP. On top of that, dyno tuning a stock car will improve efficiency and there for HP much more than buying worthless speed parts. No smog test does not mean your car should run like crap. Personally, if it were up to me I would mandate that all cars operating in California, regardless of year, be equipped with a cat. I am sick of following a 65 mustang and not being able to breathe. My cars run so clean that you can package the exhaust and sell it as mountain spring air! Oh, and my fully “smog ridden” 2.8 V6 Pinto which passes smog pumps out 155 RWHP (up from the stock 105). So much for the theory that smog equipment ruins performance.

We need to be smart about this. California’s smog test does not concern the environment. It is merely there to kick cars off the road so that we will use more natural resources to build new cars, pay for new car taxes and registration and then ultimately start the cycle over again as soon as possible. Conservation is why this law be passed. Not so that you can strap a 500 cfm carb on you '76 1800, saw out the cat, primer the hood and think you built a street rod.

[So Cal Mark]

I emailed all of the senators long before this post and took the stance that this bill will be a boon to the restoration and parts business in Calif.
I gotta disagree somewhat about the original intentions of Calif's emission laws. When I was a kid in Calif, we regularly had smog alerts every day in the summer. I lived about 2 miles from the San Gabriel Mtns and couldn't see them most days. It hurt to breath if you went outside. Luckily, we rarely have that situation anymore. When I started out in the smog inspection business, all it took was minor adjustments of the idle mixture screws to reduce emissions dramatically. Most cars we saw for repair were so poorly tuned by owners that they hardly ran. One incident has stuck in my mind for several decades now; we had a car that failed the smog check miserably and had a really heavy lope. Turned out the idle mixture was off the scale and the timing was overadvanced by a huge amount. When I got done with the adjustments, the car idled glass-smooth and passed the test. The owner was really disappointed though. He told "you can't hear the cam anymore". The car ran so poorly he thought it had a big lumpy cam in it!

[calvinconrad]

(UPDATE)
2 videos of the hearing
S.B. 1224 California Smog check: biennial inspection: exemption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9602bTWmG1k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJi9ocwNLs0

(from SEMA)
California Bill to Exempt pre-1981 Vehicles From Emissions Inspection Requirement Fails Committee Vote; Granted Reconsideration

Legislation (S.B. 1224) to exempt all motor vehicles prior to the 1981 model year from the emissions inspection requirement has been granted reconsideration after failing to be approved by a Senate Transportation and Housing Committee vote. The bill failed on a 3-4 vote, with two committee members not voting. The bill will be reconsidered in a future committee hearing. Those who voted in favor of the bill are Senators Gaines, Harman and Wyland. Those who voted against are Senators DeSaulnier, Lowenthal, Pavley and Simitian. Senators Kehoe and Rubio did not vote on the bill.


We Urge You to Contact Senators DeSaulnier, Lowenthal, Pavley, Simitian, Kehoe and Rubio(Contact Info Below) Immediately To Request Their Support for S.B. 1224

· S.B. 1224 recognizes the minimal impact of pre-1981 vehicles on emissions and air quality.

· S.B. 1224 acknowledges that pre-1981 vehicles still constitute a minuscule portion of the overall vehicle population and are a poor source from which to look for emissions reduction.

· S.B. 1224 endorses the fact that pre-1981 vehicles are overwhelmingly well-maintained and infrequently driven (a fraction of the miles each year as a new vehicle).

· For years, legislators, regulators and stationary source polluters have felt the heat from failed efforts to meet air quality goals and have looked to older cars as a convenient scapegoat, using false data and inflated annual mileage assumptions to further their case. S.B. 1224 helps validate the truth. The old car hobby should not continue to carry the burden of past mistakes!

DON’T DELAY! Please contact Senators DeSaulnier, Lowenthal, Pavley, Simitian, Kehoe and Rubio immediately to request their support of S.B. 1224. Please e-mail a copy of your letter to Steve McDonald at stevem@sema.org. Thank you for your assistance.

Senate Transportation and Housing Committee




To e-mail Senators DeSaulnier, Lowenthal, Pavley, Simitian, Kehoe and Rubio, copy and paste the email address block below:

senator.desaulnier@sen.ca.gov; Senator.Kehoe@sen.ca.gov; Senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov; senator.pavley@sen.ca.gov; michael.rubio@sen.ca.gov; senator.simitian@sen.ca.gov;

Senator Mark DeSaulnier (Chair)
Phone: (916) 651-4007
Email: senator.desaulnier@sen.ca.gov

Senator Christine Kehoe
Phone: (916) 651-4039
Email: Senator.Kehoe@sen.ca.gov

Senator Alan Lowenthal
Phone: (916) 651-4027
Email: Senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov

Senator Fran Pavley
Phone: (916) 651-4023
Email: senator.pavley@sen.ca.gov

Senator Michael Rubio
Phone: (916) 651-4016
Email: michael.rubio@sen.ca.gov

Senator Joe Simitian
Phone: (916) 651-4011
Email: senator.simitian@sen.ca.gov