I too have been very concerned about the pollution
credits for old cars scheme. But I wonder if we aren't missing
a good opportunity. Currently we are all looking at the "logical"
outcome of this clunker law - the elimination of old cars and
parts. But like any good engineer will tell you, the best way to
solve a problem is to envision what you want to happen and see if
you can manipulate events to gain it.
What we want - Keep ALL the old auto parts which are still
useable. Keep ALL the old cars which can be restored.
Now, this might seem to cover any used car or part, but I
assure you, there are plenty of cars which can't be saved (I own
a couple :-) and plenty of parts which are useless. What we could
do is start a business which offers to handle finding clunkers
for big companies for a fee. Then we carefully screen and
disassemble every car that comes through. Finally, turn in just
the useless stuff for crushing. Actually, this might be an
unparalleled opportunity to collect all those old valuable cars
that would otherwise be lost since we could use money from big
business to buy them. In a sense we could develop the largest
auto recycling business in the country, but polluting companies
would be GIVING us money to buy our inventory. Who knows, this
might be impossible, but something CAN work.
What I think we should do is develop a business plan for
a company that could save these cars and parts - whatever form that
might take. Then, approach our legislators with the changes
needed in the current proposed clunker schemes/laws to make the
business work. Perhaps we'd need to raise the used car price, or
allow cars bought anywhere to count... I'm sure that if we
approached our legislators with a solid proposal that would allow
him to pass the feel good, look good pollution legislation AND
stimulate business, he'd load every cannon he has and fire away
for us. I also guarantee anybody with the guts to do it would
be rich enough to restore and race a fleet of Cobras
In sum, my point is that we won't stop the pollution
legislation. We are a minority group most of whom won't take
the time to make their opinion known. But, we can probably
change the legislation so that it stikes a compromise we can
all live with. Instead of focusing on how this is going to hurt
us, focus on how we can make this help us.
Out of the 1000 or so people on this list, certainly we
can get a group of ten people to study this problem and find an
answer. I, for one, volunteer some time and effort.
William Woodruff woodruff@caen.engin.umich.edu
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