Past efforts to focus on the dirtiest cars and trucks have been stalled by political opposition. Some opponents have complained that poor families who can least afford new cars would be hurt most by any move to target high-polluting vehicles. Other opponents have raised concerns that sensors would invade people's privacy.
In an attempt to allay privacy concerns, air pollution officials plan to hire a nonprofit group to send the mailings and deal with vehicle owners. The information on whose cars turned up as high polluters will be maintained in a database separate from motorists' regular state records, officials said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday August 18, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 Foreign Desk 2 inches; 89 words Type of Material: Correction
Smog checks -- An article in Sunday's Section A said "cars built in 1976 or before are exempt" from the state's smog-check program. That is no longer true under a state law that took effect April 1. Vehicles built in 1976 that were registered before April 1 did not have to get a smog check this year but will have to in the future. Vehicles built in 1976 and registered after April 1 have to get a smog check. Vehicles from the 1975 model year and earlier are exempt.
Even as local smog regulators are moving ahead with the remote-sensor idea, state air quality officials have doubts about it. Some have questioned the accuracy of remote-sensing equipment, fearing that it will finger the wrong drivers by mistake. Southern California air regulators, by contrast, say the technology, which is now being used in Texas and Maryland, has a good track record.
Some critics of California's smog-control tactics say the real reason the state has failed to address the problem of dirty, older cars is that doing so would require officials to acknowledge that the smog-check program is not working.
Ten million cars and trucks are tested every year in California to ensure that they do not emit excessive pollution. Cars built in 1976 or before are exempt, as are cars newer than six years old. All other cars must be tested every other year to have vehicle registrations renewed. In most cases, cars that fail must be repaired so they will pass inspection.
A 2001 report by the National Academy of Sciences found smog-check programs generally failed to deliver the predicted pollution reductions, though it noted that they had made a positive impact.
In California, an evaluation of the state program found that in 1999 it was achieving only 36% of the reductions state regulators had predicted. Changes have produced marked improvements, but the program is still falling short of expectations.
"Smog check is like trying to stop drunk driving by giving everyone a sobriety test once a year at the DMV," said Joel Schwartz, a former executive officer of the committee that oversees the smog-check program and now a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank.
