CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

[Duke W.]

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION, GUYS AND GALS!!!

SB 1239 had been introduced in the California Senate that proposes extending the emission test exemption from pre-1976 to pre-1981. See the following link for more information

http://semasan.com/page.asp?content=...n=DrivingForce

Note that all you have to do to send an email to all members of the Transportation Committee is click the "Contact Lawmakers" button and add your comments and send. It will take you only a couple of minutes to do this. Below is the message that I sent.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I request you add all vehicles with California Historical Vehicle license plates to SB 1239, which proposes to move the emission test model year exemption from pre-1976 to pre-1981.

Historical Vehicle license plates have severe driving restrictions, and it makes no sense to require biennial emission tests. I drive my HV-plate vehicles about 200-300 miles per year, which means I have to get an emission test every 400-600 miles.

None has ever failed emission cut points and are all well within the maximum allowable emission limits.

The trip to the emission test station is a waste of time, money, energy, and creates unnecessary emissions and green house gas generation.

Thank-you for your consideration.



Please send an email from the SEMA link expressing your support of SB 1239 and request adding vehicles with California Historical Vehicle license plates to the emission test exemption.

We need this to go viral!

California Historical Vehicle license plates can be installed on 25-year and older vehicles, but they have severe use restrictions and cannot be used as daily drivers for commuting.

Request the moderators place this thread in the Sticky section and keep it there until the final resolution of this bill.

Thanks,

Duke

[Duke W.]

Re: CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

I sent the following email to State Senator Gaines (R) (senator.gaines@senate.ca.gov) who introduced SB 1239 to the legislature. He represents a district in the gold rush country and lives in El Dorado, home of noted Corvette historian Noland Adams.

I think it might actually be easier to sell a HV-plate emission test exemption to the car and car collector hating California legislature due to the driving restrictions than move the current cut off point five years up with no driving restrictions. Given the 25-year age requirement, 1991 models are eligible for HV plates this year.

Note that the HV plate application (link below) states that HV-plate "vehicle is primarily driven in..."

Last year a friend applied for a HV plate on his '90 Civic, and was told by a supervisor at the Torrance DMV office something on the order that it could ONLY be used in parades, and if he had to take it to a service facility it would have to be "flatbedded", so he tore up the application. That's ridiculous!

As stated below on HV plate requirements "primarily" does not mean "exclusively", so an occasional pleasure drive that is not related specifically to a club or cars and coffee event, travel to a service facility, or moving between storage locations is NOT excluded.

To you lawyers (including courthouse step wannabe lawyers) and law enforcement guys, I would like to hear your informal, off-the-record legal opinion on my legal interpretation of the HV-plate driving restrictions and what's okay in terms of driving a HV-plate vehicle.

Feel free to write Senator Gaines a personal email using any of the points I brought up, and also feel free to forward this note to anyone you think is willing to support my request. The first hurdle will be the Senate Transportation and Health committee, but as of today a hearing has not been scheduled. Nevertheless, don't wait to act!

Here's the link to the SEMA Web page that allows you to easily send an email to all members of the T & H committee at the click of a button. You probably received this link in an email I sent earlier this week, so this is just a reminder.

http://semasan.com/page.asp?content=...paign=LegAlert

Dear Senator Gaines,

Thank-you for introducing SB 1239. Passage of this bill will definitely help car collectors, however, merely extending the emission test exemption five years has limited value.

I request you amend the legislation to include all vehicles with California Historical Vehicle license plates. The current statutory authority for HV plates is CVC Section 5004:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/fa...r=1.&article=8.

Further, the special plates application under the "requirements" section states as follows for HV plates:

"Issued to a motor vehicle manufactured after 1922, which is at least 25 years old and of historic interest. Vehicle is primarily driven in historical exhibitions, parades, or historical vehicle club activities..."

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/co...df?MOD=AJPERES

My post-1975 model year HV-plate vehicles accumulate between 200 and 300 miles per year, so they have to be emission tested after accumulating only a few hundred miles and two tanks of fuel. The emission tests actually cost more than the two tanks of fuel. None have ever failed emission cut points. The trip to the emission test station is a waste of time, money, and energy.

Since HV-plate vehicles have significant driving restrictions, why do they have to be emission tested every two years if they are post-1975 model years? Their contribution to vehicle emissions is miniscule considering the typical low rate of mileage accumulation due to the driving restrictions.

Please add HV-plate vehicles to the emission test exemption eligibility in SB 1239.

Thank-you for your consideration.

[Justin S.]

Re: CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

I can't wait to retire somewhere else

[Duke W.]

Re: CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

The following is a comment from a California attorney regarding the DMV supervisor's comment in post #2 (his observations, not a legal opinion or legal advice).



If you haven't gone to the SEMA link in post #1, which allows you to easily send an email to all members or the Senate Transportation and Health Committee, please do so. Express your support for SB 1239 and request that HV-plate vehicles be added to the emission test exemption. It will only take a minute to do so.

Duke

[Duke W.]

Re: CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

The Transportation and Housing Committee did not complete the process of taking testimony and voting on SB 1239 last Tuesday, April 12. The committee will complete the process this coming Tuesday, April 19. If you are a resident of California and have not contacted committee members asking them to support SB 1239, please do so now! SEMA has made the process very easy. It will take about one minute of your time!

1. Go to the following link:
http://semasan.com/page.asp?content=...paign=LegAlert

2. When the above page loads you will see a "Contact Lawmaker(s)" button.

3. Left click the button and an email form with all the committee members email addresses already in the "To" box will come up.

4. Type "SB 1239" in the Subject box.

4. Type your message and hit Send. That's it!!!

Here's what I wrote:

Please support SB 1239 and amend it to exempt all vehicles with Historical Vehicle license plates from emission testing. Due to driving restrictions HV plate vehicles have, on average, very low annual mileage accumulation and make no significant contribution to vehicle emissions.

Feel free to copy and paste the above to your email, paraphrase it, or compose you own.

Also, please send this note to your circle of friends and ask them to support SB 1239. We need this thing to go viral. If the committee members inboxes are flooded by Monday with support for this bill, it has a decent chance of making it through the committee, amended as we requested.

Thanks,
Duke

[Michael J.]

Re: CA emission testing IMPORTANT! Please get involved

Duke, I have been sending this info to all my Cali relatives to take action, hope it works.