The 30-year rolling exempton was established by SB 42 (Sentor Kopp, no longer in office), which was passed in 1997 and became law in 1998.

Look it up at www.senate.ca.gov Click on "legislation" then fill out the boxes "1997-1998" session, bill number "42". The complete history is on line.

There were some utterly outrageous claims to justify AB 2683 - like 1976 model cars emit 155 time more emissions than 2004 models. I was unable to find any substantiantion for this and can tell you based on my own educational credentials and background in automotive engines that 1975 models were certified to standards that reduced emissions on the order of 90 percent from uncontrolled models. New model cars achieve on the order of a 99+ percent reduction, and modern test equipment is being pushed to the limit of its detection sensitivity. Even the BAR's own data shows that passing 1975 models have about 1/10th the emissions of uncontrolled cars, but they are ten times new cars, that have no wear and tear. In other words, exactly what you would expect based on the original certification standards. Data and conclusions have to be presented in a proper context or they can be misconstrued.

Other legislative analyses on the web site claim that 1976 models produce 2.5 times the aggregate emissions of 2004 models, but this claim was made early in the model year when few 2004s were on the road.

Considerable justification of AB 2683 was based on a "draft report" to the IMRC that was not even made public until April 2004, and it is highly biased in both the data and analyses presented. AB 2683 was introduced in February. Do you smell a rat, here?

Check out the following two sites. Download the draft report to the Inspection/Maintenance Review Committee (in the list of links on the LH side of the page) at

www.smogcheck.ca.gov

and run some cases on the ARB emission calculator:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/ei/emsmain/reportform.htm

If the bill passes both houses and goes to the governor, we must pursue a max effort to contact the governor and ask him to veto it. Jay Leno has already discussed this with him.

If the legislature wants to reintroduce it next session, fine! All I ask is that all the data be presented in a reasonable context and that all analyses are fair and unbiased. Then legislators and citizens can make a decision if the noise level reduction in emissions is worth the cost to about a million California vintage car owners. I think a fair trial will show that it is not!

Duke