CA Ferrari Chat Members Please Read ASAP- AB 2683!

Hi Car Friends:

Please spread the word to all of your car friends in California! We need to stop this bill from passing, so that we can preserve a wonderful hobby and passion for many.

Thanks for spreading the word and writing or calling Governor Schwarzenegger ASAP.

Have a nice day.

Brad
310-963-6545

***PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS E-MAIL AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE***

AB 2683 passed both the California Senate and Assembly last week. A token eleventh hour "concession" to the rising tide of outrage exempts cars from the visual inspection once they reach the age of 35, but the provisions of AB 2683 still require that 1976-up models receive tailpipe emission tests in perpetuity ,and there is a move afoot to require "older cars" to have ANNUAL emission tests!

The Governor has three choices:

1. He can do nothing, and after Sept. 30 AB 2683 will become law.

2. He can sign AB 2683 before Sept. 30, and it becomes law upon his signature.

3. He can VETO AB 2683!!!

I urge all of you who own collector cars or are collector car enthusiasts or who want to support your collector car friends to e-mail the governor using the following link:

www.govmail.ca.gov

I have attached the verbiage from the note I sent this evening, and feel
free to use any of the points I bring up. Even if you are not
specifically affected by this legislation, I guarantee you that further attempts to roll back emission testing to currently exempt cars will occur in future legislative sessions. Last year SB 708 in its original form required emission testing for cars back to the fifties, but it didn't pass in this form. If you are a vintage car owner - of any year
- any marque, a vintage car enthusiast, or a friend of vintage car enthusiasts, I urge you to take a few moments to e-mail the Governor with a request that he veto AB 2683!!!

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I urge you to veto AB 2683!

This bill was spirited through the legislature with data and analyses that are purposely biased, outside of a reasonable context, and some outright lies!

Legislative analyses that accompanied AB 2683 repeatedly stated: "
Supporters of this bill point out that 1976 model-year cars, on average, emit 155 times more hydrocarbons per mile than new vehicles." This is an outright lie, and no supporting evidence was ever presented!

Model-year 1976 vehicles were certified to emission standards that reduced emissions approximately 90 percent from uncontrolled vehicles.
New model vehicles have reduced emissions by another order of magnitude, and this proportion holds based on average passing emissions data published on the BAR Web site, despite the fact that 1976 model-year vehicles are now nearly 30 years old.

Legislative analyses also claim that 1976 model-year cars emit, in aggregate, 2.5 times the volume of emissions compared to 2004 model year cars, but this claim was made early in the year when few 2004 model year vehicles were on the road. This and other variations of this claim are obviously manipulated to overstate the emissions contribution from older vehicles. Based on the ratio of registered 1976 models to the latest full model year on the road (2003), the ratio of average measured passing emissions, and the ratio of annual mileage accumulation, 1976 models emit, in aggregate, only a fraction of the emissions from 2003 models.

The April 2004 draft report to the IMRC states that the provisions of AB
2683 will save 5.7 tons per day (tpd) of ozone precursors (HC and NOx) by the year 2010, but this "savings", if actually true, is only 0.3 percent of the approximate 1734 tpd of ozone precursors estimated for on-road vehicle in the year 2010 according to the ARB Web site
emissions inventory calculator. Meanwhile, hundreds of tons per day
are emitted by sources that have no periodic testing, many of which have no emission controls at all, and the estimate for total ozone precursors (including only reactive organic gases) from all sources in 2010 is over 5500 tpd and 8700 tpd if non-reactive organic gases are included.

Some years ago the California Legislature passed a bill, implemented in CVC 5050 that states they support the collector car hobby. In 1997 car collectors won a long sought emission test exemption for their cars once they reach 30 model-years old, but now the Legislature is pulling the rug out from under our feet at the eleventh hour with false and manipulated data and analyses that intentionally and blatantly paint collector cars as being much worse contributors to emissions than they actually are, and some of this misinformation has come from your own staff agencies, the ARB, and BAR.

We elected you to be the "peoples' governor" - to represent all Californians and reign in an out-of-control state legislature and state bureaucracy. Much work needs to be done.

I urge you to wield your veto authority and include AB 2683 on a long list of poorly crafted legislation that should be vetoed!

 

Does anyone know how to get the word out to jay Leno? He has access to Arnold. Keep spreading the word on this.

Thanks everyone.

Brad

 

URGENT LEGISLATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT

Governor Signs Smog Check Exemption Repeal Bill Into Law

We have just been informed that despite receiving thousands of messages in opposition to the bill, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just 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 false data and inflated annual mileage assumptions to make it sound like they are cleaning the air. The old car hobby must stand united against future attacks that will accomplish nothing except require unnecessary testing, waste money and burden car hobbyists.

Special thanks to all of the thousands of vehicle hobbyists and related businesses who contacted the Governor requesting his veto. Special thanks also to the steadfast California lawmakers that supported our valiant cause - State Senators Tom McClintock, Betty Karnette and Chuck Poochigian and Assemblymembers Doug LaMalfa and John Campbell.

We will live to fight another day!

Steve McDonald
SEMA VP, Government Affairs