Posted by sabro on December 21, 1999 at 07:27:21:
In Reply to: Re: Air Pollution and Earth as out Habitat-Houston posted by Ken on December 20, 1999 at 14:52:28:
I was surprised to see how much response this person's misdirected letter got.
I'm glad most of it is either positive or funny or both. We could have told him or her to get lost.
I have a great deal of sympathy for what ya'll out in Houston are going through. We live with the AQMD- air quality management district every day.
We gripe and complain about regulation, and then gripe and complain about smog. But at least it seems like things are better.
We already have several of the regulations, restrictions and rules Houston is considering.
Houston, get ready for some changes. Our gas station nozzles are funny. Paint booths are mandatory, preferential car pool parking, electric car chargers, the metrolink, green, blue and red lines and the diamond lane are all part of SoCal
• California requires a smog check every other year. I've had several different cars fail them, my '67 mustang ended up costing me $500 to pass.
Motorcycles are exempt.
• MTBE in gasoline cleans the air but pollutes the water, so we're phasing that out.
• Strict smog controls are not retroactive. Usually only apply to new cars. They add a thousand to the cost of a new car- well you hardly notice the difference in price, I guess (I haven't bought a new car in a while.)
• Industry and commercial standards- some companies such as Unocal will actually buy your old smoking clunker to meet their smog quota. A good innovative program.
• High occupancy lanes- everyone hates them except the few carpoolers and motorcycles that use them.
• Light rail: better to sleep on the train than to get stressed out for an hour on the 10 fwy.
• AQMD commuter plans are madatory for all businesses with over 50 employees. You don't have to show results, just submit the plan.
• Los Angeles air is actually much cleaner than it was ten, twenty, even thirty years ago, so as much as we complain about the regulations, you can breathe and see the mountains on most days.
I try to get to work on the Savage as often as possible. I figure the air is that much cleaner.
Good luck Houston,
Sabro