When the State of Wisconsin, in its Imperial Majesty, announces that:
[s]tarting on July 1, cars and trucks built before 1996 will be exempt from having to undergo vehicle emissions inspections in southeastern Wisconsin. The latest figures in 2007 show that the change would have affected 28% of vehicles in the region - or about 175,000 cars.
What they are ACTUALLY announcing is that the entire program is useless.
Not just for 175,000 cars--but for ALL cars. It's useless.
We all know that older cars spit more stuff. So if ANY cars should be tested, they are the older ones.
But our State's Imperial Majesties have determined that they must spend money pretending to halt pollution--so only newer, less-stuff-spewing-cars, will be tested.
I did not perform any "scientific" tests to arrive at the following conclusion:
The Legislature should simply delete all testing-funds from DOT's budget in the upcoming "budget repair" session.
While I don't agree that Wisconsin should just get rid of all testing/ funds (I think it needs fixing, but not eliminating), I am stunned to realize that I agree with you on how ridiculous this move is.
ReplyDeleteThe older cars are exactly the ones we should be focusing on for emissions testing. How does this new move make any sense at all?
Ha! I disagree with both you and Emily. For the sake of the environment, we need more out-of-tune beaters on the road, not less. Sure, poorer running cars emit more hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide; but this mean less carbon dioxide is spewed in the air. We all know that CO2 is the worst thing for the earth.
ReplyDeleteThere's a blogpost in this somewhere that I'm trying to write.
Emily, in the end, there's no "there" there in the testing.
ReplyDeleteThe number of cars which fail is small; and the amount of pollutants they emit is marginal (at best) in comparo to "the atmosphere" as a whole.
In fact, idling one's car for 30 minutes just waiting for the test (multiply by as many cars as you like) is probably as bad for the environment as simply letting the few bad ones go...
Headless, we do not disagree, unless you want to "test IN" all the really bad ones and take the rest of the cars off the road (like yours...)
Or you could be than the average bear, like me.
ReplyDeleteThe '72 hasn't been tested since I've owned it. It's been "stored" in the town of Washington Island in Door county for a couple years now. Don't have to test up there...