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Oct 24, 2010

REGISTRATION FEES * USA - New Tactic in California for Paying Pollution Bill

Surcharge on registration fees penalizing drivers for the smog they create


Stockton,CAL,USA -The New York Times, by FELICITY BARRINGER -October 17, 2010:  -- Officials who have tried and failed to clean the air in California’s smog-filled San Joaquin Valley have seized on a new strategy: getting millions of drivers to shoulder more of the cost... Faced with a fine of at least $29 million for exceeding federal ozone limits, the San Joaquin Valley’s air quality regulators are proposing an annual surcharge of $10 to $24 on registration fees for the region’s 2.7 million cars and trucks beginning next year. A decision is expected when the governing board meets on Thursday... Although the surcharge is not expected to change how much people drive or what cars or trucks they buy, air pollution experts say it is a harbinger of the future. After decades of forcing industry to clean its smokestacks, retool car and truck engines and fine-tune gasoline, regulators are exploring what they can do to force consumers to face up to the pollution they cause... While it already uses registration fees to support part of its budget, it is extremely unusual, if not unprecedented, for such an agency to make a point of penalizing drivers for the smog they create... The local surcharge plan comes as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to announce tighter standards for ozone pollution. Those new rules are likely to put many regions of the country that are currently in compliance in the same position as Central and Southern California — facing big fines for pollution that is largely a product of truck and automobile exhaust... (Image from sustainability.ucdavis.edu: Dangerous airborne particles will increase in the San Joaquin Valley)

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