On Thu, 13 Jun 1996 KBEST@novell.com wrote:
> Just got the registration renewal in the mail, so it must be time for
> the yearly safety inspection for the MGA.
Tale of woe deleted.
> Twelve stops and a couple hours and 10 dollars later I'm legal. I
> think next year I'll just tell the state that I don't feel like going
> through the hassle. Thank god it's a '57 so there's no emmissions to
> do...
Thought the Californians and New Jersyites would be interested in VT's new
plans for emission inspection. Starting next year, if your car came with
a catalytic converter, the inspection will examine whether it is still
there. Year after that, the station will test your gas cap with an
expensive gas cap tester, to see if it allows gasoline vapors to escape.
Year after that, cars built after 95 will have their computer systems
looked at some how. I'm not clear how.
The interesting thing about all this is that there is no requirement that
any of this stuff work. If your catalytic converter or gas cap is
missing you will have to replace it. But if they are there and
malfunctioning, you don't have to fix them.
As the editorial in the newspaper points out this morning, this is the
worst of all choices: the cost of inspections will be greater, and there
is no realistic possibility that the greater cost will result in
cleaner air.
Your tax dollars at work.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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