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SEMA

Delivering Up-to-Date Information to America’s Car Clubs and Enthusiasts
November 2004

Governor Signs Smog Check Exemption Repeal Bill into Law

Despite receiving thousands of messages in opposition to the bill from
dedicated SEMA Action Network (SAN) members across the state,
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 2683 into law.
The new law repeals California’s current rolling emissions-test exemption
for vehicles 30 years old and older and replaces it with a law requiring the
lifetime testing of all 1976 and newer model-year vehicles.
   
We remain confident that the facts are on our side: California’s 30-year
rolling exemption recognized the minimal impact vintage cars have on air
quality, since they constitute a minuscule portion of the overall vehicle
population. These older cars are overwhelmingly well maintained and
infrequently driven and are poor candidates for reducing pollution. They
are, in the end, convenient scapegoats for legislators, regulators and
stationary source polluters using exaggerated data and inflated annual
mileage assumptions in order to secure any legislative victory that sounds
as if it will reduce emissions.
   
"The SAN has generally encouraged the enactment of environmental
legislation to create genuine air quality improvement," said SEMA Vice
President of Government Affairs Steve McDonald. "When such efforts
become the subject of hyperbole and misinformation, it is our duty to
speak out. We challenge supporters to spot a single vehicle of a model
year relevant to this bill on their next commute. These cars and trucks are
simply not the problem. The old-car hobby must stand united against
future attacks from environmental activists and smokestack industries that
will accomplish nothing except require unnecessary testing, waste money
and burden car hobbyists."

The new law becomes effective April 1, 2005. As originally written, the bill
would have required vehicles of the post 1975 era to undergo an
enhanced smog inspection for the duration of the vehicle’s life. However,
hobbyists were able to secure a small concession in the enacted version
of the law, in which vehicles 35 years old or older of the post 1975 era
need only undergo a basic Smog Check inspection, a tailpipe test,
functional inspection of the fuel cap and a visual inspection for liquid fuel
leaks. To qualify for this basic test, these vehicles must be insured under
a collector policy and only driven to parades, exhibitions, etc.

"With the California Air Resources Board having proposed yearly testing
of these older vehicles, this new law could be far costlier and even more
burdensome to vehicle collectors in the future," McDonald added. "Even
the benefits of the less stringent smog check inspection available to these
1976 and newer model-year vehicles could be short lived. These
regulators could set emissions standards to any level that suits their
purposes in order to ensure inspection failures of these 1976 and later
model cars. Nothing in this new law prevents regulators from bringing
model-year 1968 through 1975 vehicles back into the Smog Check
program at a later date."
   
As always, the SAN is grateful to the thousands of car clubs, media
outlets and enthusiasts throughout the state that bombarded the
Governor’s office with phone calls, letters and e-mails requesting his veto
of the is bill. Working together, we will live to fight another day!


A Little Help from Our Friends

Our efforts to battle A.B. 2683 (see adjacent article for details on the
battle against A.B. 2683) in California did have some benefits. We were
able to renew ties to Sacramento lawmakers who have consistently
supported the interests of automotive hobbyist vehicles from collector
cars, trucks and SUVs to sport compacts and everything in between. We
were also able to create relationships with less-traditional allies. Special
thanks must be directed to the most stalwart of these legislators who,
when the fight intensified, unwaveringly supported our valiant cause,
State Senators Tom McClintock, Betty Karnette and Chuck Poochigian
and Assemblymembers Doug LaMalfa and John Campbell.

Senator McClintock and Assembly-man LaMalfa appeared on numerous
talk-radio programs throughout California questioning the bill’s
effectiveness in the weeks leading up to the Governor’s official signing.
La Malfa and Campbell delivered impassioned pleas to their fellow
legislators to oppose the measure in speeches on the Assembly floor.
Senator Karnette worked with the SAN to create workable amendments
to the bill that would have created a valid collector-vehicle definition and
permanently exempted these cars from Smog Check requirements.
Despite initially voting for the bill, Senator Poochigian righted the ship and
became one of the bill’s most vocal opponents and persistently
advocated for a strong exemption for collectors. Assemblymember
Campbell also spearheaded an effort to secure the signatures of 19
Republican legislators in both the Assembly and the Senate on a letter
requesting the Governor’s veto of A.B. 2683.

In the letter to Governor Schwarzenegger, these lawmakers stated: "In
1997, the Legislature and Former Governor Pete Wilson agreed through
Senate Bill 42 to a long-term exemption from smog check for vehicles 30
years old and older. A.B. 2683 violates this previous agreement with the
collector-car community." McClintock, Karnette, Poochigian, LaMalfa and
Campbell, among several others, remained true to the commitment made
in 1997, and for that we are in their debt.