Without making any judgements about recent requirements or procedures, or
the travails of keeping a Vanagon on the road in California, I would like to
make small observations and hopefully add a small perspective to the
discussion. I haven't been a CA resident for 32 years.

In 1956-7, I was a middle school student smack in the Los Angeles Basin. At
that time, the air was unfit to breathe. I had an afternoon bicycle paper
route, and because of it a chronic sore throat and cough. (actually, all of
the kids had the same cough) The air looked like a modern-day picture of
Shanghai. I am fortunate to have not developed a permanent asthma condition.

Today I am sure the Basin air quality is far from perfect, but it is
definitely better than in 1957, AND there are a bazillion more cars and
trucks on the streets and freeways. Perhaps 50-100 times more. New emissions
requirements have come as continual efforts to keep up with the sheer volume
of vehicles and their tailpipes (and filler pipes).

And, remember in the late '60s and in the '70s when the culture was to
automatically disable emission control equipment? Not so easy today, but it
did not go unnoticed by the lawmakers.

So, IMHO, California has done the whole country a real service in air
quality by being the leaders of vehicle emission ACTION during the last 3 or
4 decades. The Feds would never have acheived comparable results. It is a
tribute to California's results that many other states have adopted their
standards. It is unfortunate that they can't tailor the requirements to
every specific location and situation, I suspect that is more a matter of
administrative costs than flexibility.

Vern McIntosh
Bend, Oregon