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State bill would expand smog check
| Sunday, Mar 9 2008 10:10 PM
Last Updated: Sunday, Mar 9 2008 11:00 PM
A new bill would require all California vehicles to get smog-checked every two years, leveling the playing field and potentially cleaning local air.
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Introduced last week by Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, AB 2063 would affect vehicle owners in parts of the state where tailpipe inspections are required only when there's a change of ownership.
That's mainly less-populated counties on the state's northern, western and southwest border.
The two-year requirement now applies only in areas of the state prone to poor air quality, including the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles and Bay areas.
The smog check program was started in 1984 to ensure emission controls functioned property on vehicles in areas with poor quality.
The change would level the playing field among consumers and help local air quality by reducing exhaust pollution that drifts in from other parts of the state, said Derek Chernow, Parra's chief of staff.
"Bad air doesn't stay in one place," Chernow said.
About 880,000 of the state's 33 million vehicles would be impacted, according to a fact sheet on the bill.
"It would have some positive impact on our region but we can't quantify it," said Seyed Sadredin, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
Sadredin said air regulators long believed only a small amount of valley pollution came from other areas but that has since changed.
Satellite images of smoke clouds from several wildfires around the state last summer showed smoke from the north, south and west drifting into the valley. The photos prompted air regulators to embark on a study to reassess earlier figures on pollution drift.