Phil :
Sorry, don't have the limits handy, but they were quite high, something
like 1100ppm HC, 400ppm CO. At the time, there was a dollar limit on how
much you could be required to spend to fix your car, and a specified hassle
you had to go through every time it flunked (for a periodic inspection). I
believe the car could not be legally sold (as a running car as opposed to
scrap) unless it met the standards. The laws are substantially different
now, no inspection is required for pre-1974 cars.
I'm not sure what the political situation was back in the early 80's, but
now it is the Federal EPA that is pressuring California to enact even more
draconian laws. (Ever hear of OBD-III ? Orwell would have been proud.)
I'm no lawyer, but I see two answers to your retroactive law argument.
One, the EPA was created by Congress and hence has all their power. They
are literally above the law (just like the IRS). Two, the idea is that the
standards are set to what a car in 'good condition' should be able to meet.
The law has always required that your car be properly maintained, the smog
laws just extend that to emissions maintenance. There's nothing
retroactive about it.
However, the CA government has never been particularly worried about the
constitutionality of their laws.
Randall
Lakewood, PRC (People's Republic of California)
On Wednesday, August 09, 2000 3:55 PM, Phil Ethier [SMTP:pethier@isd.net]
wrote:
>
> So, what standards does it have to pass?
>
> And what if it does not pass them?
>
> This seems like a retroactive law to me. Has nobody challanged it in
> federal court?
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