Central Valley motorists might be forced to pay region's air pollution fines

[Newsjock]

Source: California Watch

San Joaquin Valley residents may soon have to chip in and help clean the air dirtied by their cars’ emissions.

At least that’s what the valley’s air district regulators are proposing: A $10 to $24 surcharge tacked onto residents’ annual car and truck registration fees.

The district is facing a $29 million fine for exceeding federal ozone limits. In order to keep that fine off the backs of the industries and businesses in the region, officials are looking to have drivers help out.

Pollution from car and truck exhaust accounts for 80 percent of the smog output in the Valley.

Read more: http://www.californiawatch.org/watchblog/motorists-may-foot-bill-pollution-fines-5854

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Heard about this on California Libertarian Jeff and Jerr,

They did not put it quite this way. There take was that the government picks an arbitrary number so they can charge more taxes (fees are taxes to those libertarian doofuses).

Personally, I think both drivers and industry should have to pay to fix the mess both groups created.

[Xithras]

2. They'd better slap that fee on the SF Bay Area too.

According to the CARB's own numbers, between 27% (in the north) and 10% (in the south) of the air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley is carried in from the SF Bay Area on the prevailing winds.

Overall, this is BS anyway. The SJVAPCD's own numbers have shown that roughly 80% of the locally generated automotive emissions in the Valley come from thru-traffic on I-5 and SR-99. If we blew the freeways up and told the rest of the state to keep out of the Valley, our air would be fine.

What they're talking about, essentially, is fining the residents of the Valley for our nasty air, when local residents and businesses are only generating 14%-18% of the total pollution in the first place. If we completely depopulated the Valley and shut down every farm and business, the air would still be heavily polluted, and it would still exceed federal standards from time to time.

The fine should be levied against EVERY Californian. If not, this is just another example of wealthy "coastal" California foisting its crap off onto the poorer inlanders.

[asdjrocky]

3. Yeah, whatever you do, don't look at all the fucking cows-

And the farmers getting rich off of them.

[KamaAina]

4. WTF?!

Note that the problem is car and truck exhaust. Two of the three major routes between northern and southern California, Interstate 5 and California Highway 99, pass through the Central Valley. Thus, these morans are proposing to tax local residents for a problem created in large part by trucking firms from the more urbanized parts of the state. :grr: :banghead: