EPA working to make modding cars illegal

[Ridge]

http://jalopnik.com/is-the-epa-trying-to-ban-the-conversion-of-street-cars-1758013542

SEMA says the EPA is trying to pass some legislation that would make modification of street cars into part or full time track cars illegal.


“This proposed regulation represents overreaching by the agency, runs contrary to the law and defies decades of racing activity where EPA has acknowledged and allowed conversion of vehicles,” said SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting. “Congress did not intend the original Clean Air Act to extend to vehicles modified for racing and has re-enforced that intent on more than one occasion.”

[Dave_L]

The good ol' EPA. I don't know how we'd live without them.

[cstone]

Isn't that the agency that turned parts of western Colorado and eastern Utah into a potential Superfund site?

I can see why they would go after some Hoopties. [Sarcasm2]

[TFOGGER]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a28135/heres-what-the-epas-track-car-proposal-actually-means/


Today, the automotive enthusiast press went into a collective tizzy over a press release sent out by the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer's Association (https://www.sema.org/news/2016/02/08/epa-seeks-to-prohibit-conversion-of-vehicles-into-racecars). In it, SEMA shed light on a previously unpublicized bit of wording buried within a giant, 629-page proposal drafted by the EPA in July of 2015 (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-07-13/pdf/2015-15500.pdf)."EPA Seeks to Prohibit Conversion of Vehicles Into Racecars," SEMA's headline reads (https://www.sema.org/news/2016/02/08/epa-seeks-to-prohibit-conversion-of-vehicles-into-racecars). But the reality of the legislation is a lot more nuanced than that.

EPA spokeswoman Laura Allen released the following statement on the recently uncovered EPA language:

People may use EPA-certified motor vehicles for competition, but to protect public health from air pollution, the Clean Air Act has – since its inception – specifically prohibited tampering with or defeating the emission control systems on those vehicles.The proposed regulation that SEMA has commented on does not change this long-standing law, or approach. Instead, the proposed language in the Heavy-Duty Greenhouse Gas rulemaking simply clarifies the distinction between motor vehicles and nonroad vehicles such as dirt bikes and snowmobiles. Unlike motor vehicles – which include cars, light trucks, and highway motorcycles – nonroad vehicles may, under certain circumstances, be modified for use in competitive events in ways that would otherwise be prohibited by the Clean Air Act.EPA is now reviewing public comments on this proposal.
In other words, the wording included in the bill, and highlighted by SEMA, is not a newly established rule outlawing a previously allowed activity. Instead, with this language, the EPA seeks only to clarify the wording of an existing law—one that has been in place for many years, and that apparently has not hampered our current culture of amateur or semi-professional competition using production road vehicles in any way.

[Ah Pook]

Looked at the changes in the CO emission laws and DMV plating lately?

[Irving]

If God hasn't kicked us out of the Garden of Eden, the Sierra Club/EPA would have.

[BPTactical]

Dear EPA,
Kiss my primered ass

Signed,
My 1970 Nova

[Tinelement]

Anyone else see the running theme in that article......

".......are not the ‘motor vehicles’ that Congress intended to regulate.”

[JohnnyDrama]

What they really want to outlaw are big honkin' trucks.

[gnihcraes]

same folks were poking at a plugged mine site a while back too when it let go. Seems to have done more harm than good.

[hurley842002]

What they really want to outlaw are big honkin' trucks.

With large mirrors and smoke stacks..

[ray1970]

Sheesh. Next thing you know some agency will want to make all of our firearms quieter by mandating suppressors from the factory.

[Big E3]

Sheesh. Next thing you know some agency will want to make all of our firearms quieter by mandating suppressors from the factory.

No the EPA wants to make guns quieter by taking away the bullets.

[BPTactical]

same folks were poking at a plugged mine site a while back too when it let go. Seems to have done more harm than good.

Touche'

[Aloha_Shooter]

I read the R&T article earlier. It seems somewhat like covering up for the bastages at EPA. Note the phrase "the proposed language in the Heavy-Duty Greenhouse Gas rulemaking" -- there shouldn't be any damned Heavy-Duty Greenhouse Gas rulemaking, they were not authorized to make rules about Greenhouse Gases as part of the Clean Air Act and it takes purposeful idiocy to say that they were (as one federal court ruled).

[Gman]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
-Ronald Regan

[Ridge]

http://i.imgur.com/eZGIDo1.jpg

[driver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAvQSkK8Z8U

[spqrzilla]

The EPA press release fails to actually inform me that the SEMA statement was wrong. Further, the EPA lies.

[Gman]

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/02/09/the-epa-is-out-of-control-now-they-want-to-ban-hobby-race-cars/