Randall,
Just a few counterpoints....
"It pretty much had to be worded the way it was, because for many of those
cars there was no emissions standard in effect when it was new."
Randall, we're talking about 1974 and newer cars. They most certainly did
have exhaust emission standards in effect when they were new. If the intent
of the law was to ensure compliance with those standards, then why didn't
the text of the bill just say that (instead of the Emission standards as
prescribed by the department...")?
"If you cannot find someone to smog your car, you can contact the local smog
referee, and they will direct you to a station in your area that *will*
inspect your car."
Randall, they will direct you to a state testing facility that may or may
not be in your area. In my case, since I live in Hollister, the state
testing facility is NOT in my area. Since it's a state testing facility, you
won't get three chances like you did with your motor home. Anyway you cut
it; it's a needless hassle on the classic car owner that will generate
little or no improvement in the state air quality
"The state is very aggressive about identifying cars without current CA
registration tags"
Randall, I can only fall back on my own observations and what I read about
this. Since I live in a rural agricultural area, I have been able to
observe that a majority of the "clunkers" I see on the road do not have
current tags. It is not a priority for my community's police force. If they
pull you over for something else and you have expired tags, then they'll do
something about it. Otherwise its "eyes wide shut". As you know, we have
had an ongoing battle between the Governor and Legislature over driver's
licenses for illegal aliens. I think that it stands to reason that someone
who cannot get a drivers license and who cannot get or afford insurance
(also a requirement to register a car in CA) probably is not registering
their car. Just last week, there was a news story in the paper about how
Oakland, CA had temporarily stopped doing drunk driving checkpoints because
they were snaring up too many illegals driving without a license (and a
local Latino politician complained that the drunk driving checkpoints were
racist because of this).
"SB700 was signed into law last year and it requires CARB to start enforcing
smog standards against many classes of farm equipment in 2005."
Randall, as I read that bill, SB700 requires CARB to develop standards for
stationary agricultural equipment (not tractors, etc) and develop a
definition for what is a "Large Confined Animal Facility" Developing
standards and definitions is a long way from actually requiring new farm
equipment to have emission controls and enforcing them.
But hey, that's the great thing about the USA, we can all disagree on stuff
like this.
Hugh
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