* This message forwarded from private area of Rich Woods
  * Original message dated 11 May 96  18:45:00, from Tony Santana
 
 Apparently-to: rich.woods@245.genesplicer.org
From: tony.santana@newdomain.com (TONY SANTANA)
Date: Sat, 11 May 96 20:45:00 -0500
From The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1996:
           Coming Soon: A Plan to Confiscate Your Car
                         by Eric Peters
     In the not too distant future, owning a second car, or one
that is more than four years old, may be a legal impossibility -
if, that is, a law recently passed in New Jersey governing
automobile emissions inspections is allowed to stand, and other
states use it as a template for their own legislation.
     The auto emissions law was signed by New Jersey's Republican
governor, Christine Todd Whitman, last June.  It provides for a
centralized emissions inspection regime explicitly designed to
fail most cars more than four years old, after which they may be
denied registration and ultimately forfeited to the state.
     As extreme as this sounds, it is exactly what could happen
if the emissions law is enforced as it is written.  Here's the
story:  New Jersey, like all the other 49 states, is under legal
obligation to comply with the strict air quality goals set forth
in the 1990 federal Clean Air Act.  Washington has been exerting
considerable pressure on the states to meet these standards, and
has threatened those that do not comply with the loss of hundreds
of millions of dollars in federal highway funding.
     The target of least resistance has been private automobile
owners, since they individually possess much less clout in state
capitals than the organized presence of big utility companies,
manufacturers and other industrial polluters.  Garden State
officials initially decided to adopt the so-called Enhanced
Inspection and Maintenance chassis dynamometer test, known as I/M
240, that is favored by the Environmental Protection Agency.
This would be implemented in conjunction with roadside monitoring
using infrared sensing equipment and random testing by police.
     Presently, a modified version of I/M 240 known as
Asynchronous Mode Testing is being discussed as the procedure
that would be put into place beginning later this year or
sometime during 1997-98.
     I/M 240 and ASM testing both involve driving a car or truck
on what amounts to a treadmill while an operator measures
emissions levels.  These "enhanced" tests are being pushed hard
by an Arizona-based company, Envirotest, and its lobbyists in
state capitals around the country.  Each new contract for an I/M
240 program means millions of dollars for Envirotest - and a
government-enforced legal monopoly on all emissions testing and
repair conducted in that state.
     Many older cars are expected to fail the dynamometer test,
perhaps 60%, according to EPA estimates; 30% according to the
director of the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles.  The
reason is simply that typically vehicles more than four years old
have minor wear and tear that slightly increase their emissions
beyond the standard for each car's model year.
     The tiny amount of increase attributable to this incidental
wear is of no real consequence to air quality.  Yet under the New
Jersey law it would nevertheless be sufficient cause to deny a
vehicle renewed registration.  And since it is already illegal in
most New Jersey counties to keep an unregistered vehicle on a
privately owned driveway (these are quasipublic areas under New
Jersey law, as in other states), the state may ticket, impound
and even confiscate your unregistered car or truck - without
compensation.
     While the state argues that this is the only way to combat
airborne smog and catch all the polluters untouched by the
present system, what it really means is that folks who can't
afford $700 in repairs to bring their car back into compliance
won't have the option of parking their own car in their own
driveway until they can pay the bill.
     It also means the owner of an older collectible or specialty
vehicle will see his hobby effectively criminalized (failure to
submit to the test or keeping an unregistered car on your
property can result in jail time in New Jersey).  His second car
could be taken from him by agents of the state whose agencies,
incidentally, share in any monies recovered as a consequence of
the impoundment or forfeiture of an unregistered automobile.
     New Jersey officials argue that historic and collector cars
more than 25 years old will be granted an exemption, but it is
the state bureaucracy that will define what qualifies as an
historic or collectible car.  The emissions law describes such a
"qualified" vehicle as "a restricted issue make or model
(manufactured) in sufficiently limited quantity...(or one) that
is generally recognized" as such.
     In other words, a classic Mustang or Camaro - both of which
were produced in the millions - might no qualify under this
definition and could be subject to confiscation or scrappage if
it could not pass the test.  It all depends on whether you can
convince a harried DMV bureaucrat that your car is "historic."
     But it's not just hobbyists who should be concerned.  By the
EPA's own admission, almost no car more than 10 years old is
expected to pass the dynamometer test.  Since the average car on
the road today is at least seven years old, a lot of drivers are
going to find themselves without their cars in New Jersey should
the new emissions law be enforced to the letter.
     The automobile manufacturers are probably salivating at that
prospect, because they stand to profit enormously if New Jersey's
tyrannical program is adopted by other states.  Imagine if
everybody had to buy a new car every three or four years.
     What's happening in New Jersey is frightening and ominous.
And it's not about "air quality" or anything else so ostensibly
reasonable.  It's about getting folks out of their cars, by force
or fraud, and into some other form of transportation more
amenable to control by the state.  Take the new emissions
restrictions seriously.  New Jersey's environmentalist
bureaucrats sure do.
                               ***
     Mr. Peters writes on automotive issues for the Washington
Times, and is an editor on the staff of its Commentary pages.
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