[dexter]

Just got done calling my assemblyman (Joe Nation) and senator (John Burton), plus sent the following e-mail to Bruce McPherson:

Senator McPherson:

There is a bill due for a vote on March 25th that concerns me. Senate Bill 708 has been proposed by Senator Florez as part of a package of environmental bills. SB 708 would roll back the current smog exemption for pre-1973 cars and trucks and require that a vehicle must be older than 45 years old to be exempt from smog rules. The bill also seems to override SB 100 and SB 1578, passed in 2001 and 2002 respectively, which allow exemption from smog rules for up to 500 newly registered vehicles built by hobbyists each year. As an auto hobbyist who registered a car under SB 100 during 2002, I am OPPOSED to SB 708 for the following reasons:

1. There are a relatively small number of pre-1973 vehicles on California’s roads. Many of them are owned by auto hobbyists like me. Due to the small number of these vehicles on the road and the fact that they are driven very few miles annually compared to new cars, these cars do not contribute in any meaningful way to the overall air pollution in the state.
2. Those of us who have registered cars under the provisions of SB 100 or SB 1578 would be faced with bringing those cars (in my case, a replica of a 1965 Shelby Cobra) into compliance with smog rules, a process in my case that, if it were even possible, would cost many thousands of dollars. Alternatively, we would be forced to sell our cars to people outside of the state of California prior to the effective date of SB 708. At any given time there are only a few Cobra replicas such as mine for sale (one of the reasons I built mine instead of buying an existing car). This forced “dumping” of many cars in a short period of time would undoubtedly require me to sell at a substantial loss.
3. Those of us (the auto hobbyist crowd) who own pre-1973 cars spend a significant amount of time and money tinkering with our cars. Many (maybe most) of the companies that make equipment catering to our hobby are based in California – a large number of them are based in southern California, the birthplace of “hot rods”. It is likely that SB 708 would negatively affect the sales of equipment by those California-based businesses in a significant way. In this current economic climate, I do not think it makes sense for our legislature to enact laws that would cause additional job losses in California.

In summary, I think SB 708 causes economic harm to our state at a time when we can least afford it in order to gain an environmental benefit that is, in all likelihood, not material to the problem that Senator Florez is trying to solve. While environmental improvement is a laudable goal, I don’t believe that this bill materially advances that goal. I would appreciate your OPPOSITION to SB 708.

Thank you,