@db4690: What?? When did I ever mention “rolling coal” or any such nonsense. Pick a slightly more plausible strawman, please.
My issue is the owner-operator, purchasing a truck in (say) 2008 in good faith, now not permitted to earn a living without five-figure upgrades that he may or may not be able to afford, that remains in compliance with all air-pollution laws. (Also the virulently anti-worker nature of mandating expensive upgrades that folks like Swift can afford, but O/O can only with difficulty.)
For a car site, youd think the obvious legal precedent would be chilling: “Sorry, sir, but your '92 Corolla fails to meet most recent CA emissions. Either repower with an OBDII engine, or stay out.”
What’s wrong with just sitting back and letting depreciation of goods run its course? Worked pretty good over the last 40 years!
@Mean,these new Diesels smell sweet(when I was a kid I loved the smell of an HD5 ALLIS crawler with a Detroit in it,but I realize that that this old tech wasnt that great) even back when the emission control consisted of a “puff limiter” people were disabling them right and left,these contractors around here are so tight they wouldnt make it California,they keep Junk twice as long as they should,would hardly ever consider an Auto trans,dont worry much about the operators comfort either,and they jealously try to keep the " runts out of the trough" good Republicans and Teabaggers all,and they generally dont give a hoot about the little man and think they cant afford to pay $12 an hour(my current EMPLOYER)(no health ins either) while at the sametime scarfing up property at 25% of value(after breaks and such) and having to pay only a fraction of county taxes on the spread due to trusts and whatever(Boss finally did break bad and buy a couple of "new "Macks with close to 200K on them(you ought to see our junk gallery) and no Christmas bonuses for the Guys either.
Whew!, excuse me-the only way most of this junk will be junked is a deal like “cash for clunkers”{what a stupid throwaway} or legislated out-Kevin
@meanjie75fan
What’s wrong with just sitting back and letting depreciation of goods run it’s course.
Nothing. We do that with automobiles in general. But, in states like CA, the problem was acute and just letting the stream of asthmatics build up in the emergency room while we waited 29 years to get cars where they should be, wasn’t enough. Trucks were and are exempt from a lot of polution controls. Truck manufacturers could have taken a lead in the particulates they emit but didn’t. Now, you have trucks with much more life expectancy in mileage then cars which will continue unabated till forced to change for many years while people suffer. Besides, the role of the govt. should be limited to securing the personal freedom for ALL and not just a few. I would not want to wait for my freedom to breath clean air in order to maximize an industries profits by waiting till they decided to buy new trucks. it seems like an idea for govt. intervention a Libertarian could get behind.
“Trucks were and are exempt from a lot of polution controls”
Actually, there was an effort to impose stronger pollution controls on diesels during the Reagan Administration, but that effort was shot down by The Gipper, who famously stated that, “Trees emit more pollution than diesel engines”. (Yes, he really did say that.)
The president of The Sierra Club then issued a challenge to Mr. Reagan, offering to lock himself in a room with a tree if Mr. Reagan would lock himself in a room with a running diesel engine. Unfortunately, Mr. Reagan did not take him up on that bet, so we will never know whether Ronnie’s “scientific” theory had any merit.
@dagosa I think the term Libertarian is overused and mostly by those who like the idea but don’t want to give up all the goodies government provides them with.
I found the same thing in France; every Frenchman fancies himself a Libertarian, but France is one of the most paternalistic countries on Earth. The Libertarian part of French living is mostly in entertainment and after hours discussion in bistros. When they go back to work the next day they are regimented for the rest of the workday. The French really love big goverment even though they claim they don’t.
Personally I am a Libetarian to the tune of not believing in unnecessary government intrusion in our lives and firmly believing that each individual is responsible for their own deeds.
Trees actually do emit hydrocarbons so Reagan wasn’t entirely wrong. Hydrocarbons, in a reaction with sunlight, are the major contributors to smog. Trees just don’t put out carbon monoxide, unless you light them on fire.
But ok, we get it already, democrats are saviors from heaven and republicans are evil, never mind the fact that both the EPA and OSHA came into being during the Nixon administration.
That old beater with the Obama bumper sticker on it is also grandfathered pollution.
Wow. Think my involvement in this thread has outlived any usefulness. I’m out unless someone tries grossly distorting what I’ve said, again.
I think the precedent-setting implications of a vehicle being forced to meet modern emissions, ex-post-facto style, is very relevant to this site, but probably deserves its own thread.
I didn’t set out to make this “something political”…if you check, somebody said something snide re: Libertarians, so–in full disclosure mode–I admitted I was one (using lower-case l, if one notices, implying affiliation with an idea, not party affiliation/membeship.)