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You’re cruising down Freeway 1 in a pristine 1969 Mustang Boss 429, the Pacific sundown portray your chrome bumpers gold, when all of a sudden you keep in mind: oh proper, California desires to deal with your weekend warrior prefer it’s personally accountable for melting the polar ice caps. Welcome to the Golden State, the place we’ll legalize just about every part besides frequent sense. I’ve lived in California for round eight years now and I’ve at all times liked it right here: the climate, the meals, the wonder, the automobile tradition… That’s why it’s much more disappointing that this state, the one which mainly created America’s automobile tradition, would mainly flip its again on traditional vehicles.
Senate Invoice 712, lovingly dubbed “Leno’s Regulation” after its most well-known champion, Jay Leno, ought to have been a slam dunk. As an alternative, it bought the bureaucratic equal of being ghosted on a courting app — quietly killed in committee with all of the ceremony of taking out the trash. And albeit, that’s not simply disappointing. It’s downright insulting to anybody who believes that preserving automotive historical past shouldn’t require leaping by extra hoops than a circus poodle. Particularly in a state as forward-thinking and culture-heavy as California.
“I’m deeply upset that when once more, the California state Legislature didn’t prioritize California’s traditional automobile tradition and the fans who have been counting on this measure to move,” mentioned Senator Shannon Grove. “Sadly, at this time California mentioned ‘no’ to serving to protect these rolling items of historical past and let down traditional automobile golf equipment throughout the state from lowriders, to scorching rods and each American traditional in between.”
Uncommon Vehicles, Frequent Sense
Leno’s Regulation wasn’t asking to exempt each gas-guzzling monster truck from environmental oversight. It merely proposed that vehicles 35 years and older — you realize, those that see much less highway time than a gamer sees daylight — ought to skip California’s more and more Byzantine smog test necessities.
The numbers don’t lie, even when Sacramento prefers artistic accounting. Basic vehicles symbolize a microscopic 0.6% of registered autos in California, in accordance with the Specialty Gear Market Affiliation (SEMA). That’s roughly 230,000 autos out of almost 40 million registered vehicles and vehicles. To place that in perspective, you’re extra prone to spot Bigfoot shopping for a Venti drink at Starbucks than encounter a traditional automobile throughout your every day commute.
To make it even crazier, these automotive time capsules common fewer than 1,200 miles per yr, in accordance with Hagerty Insurance coverage information. My neighbor’s Peloton will get extra motion than most traditional Corvettes. But California treats a 1987 BMW that will get pushed to automobile exhibits twice a yr prefer it’s single-handedly accountable for the state’s air high quality issues.
Jay Leno, who owns extra over 200 traditional vehicles, put it completely: testing these vehicles isn’t simply costly, it’s typically unattainable. Smog testing gear designed for contemporary fuel-injected engines struggles with carburetors like I’m scuffling with California’s choice. The consequence? Basic automobile house owners pay as much as six instances extra for testing that usually yields meaningless outcomes.
Cash Is the Motive
Maybe I’m being cynical, but it surely’s value noting that California’s smog test program generates cash for the state. Basic automobile exemptions would trim that income stream, and apparently, Sacramento values each penny greater than it values the automotive heritage that helped put California on the map. State officers reportedly warned the board that the invoice would price the state cash, mainly confirming what this was actually all about.
The California Air Sources Board (CARB) opposed the invoice, citing issues about air high quality and emissions reductions. However let’s take a look at some numbers that California DMV staff ought to perceive: Basic vehicles are pushed only a few hundred miles per yr on common, in comparison with the 13,500 that common vehicles are pushed yearly. It’s most likely apparent to most of us from these numbers that traditional vehicles should not even near the principle culprits of car emissions.
In the meantime, California continues to import electrical energy from coal vegetation in different states to cost its rising fleet of EVs, however in some way a man driving his 1965 Shelby Cobra to a weekend automobile present is outwardly some sort of pet killer. Based on the EPA, transportation accounts for 29% of greenhouse gasoline emissions, however light-duty autos (which embrace classics) symbolize solely about 17% of that complete. Inside that slice, traditional vehicles are such a tiny fraction that they barely register. We’re primarily arguing about crumbs whereas ignoring the entire cake. This is similar state that simply reversed course on banning new gasoline automobile gross sales by 2035 (whoops!), but in some way can’t discover room for a number of thousand traditional vehicles that spend most of their time underneath automobile covers.
Vehicles are a part of California’s wealthy historical past. The 1967 Camaro SS that impressed generations of fans. The 1970 Challenger R/T was the quintessential American muscle automobile. The common-or-garden 1989 Honda CRX proved that effectivity and enjoyable may coexist. Every one tells the story of American ingenuity, craftsmanship, and the democratization of pace and magnificence.
However in California’s bureaucratic logic, a 1932 Ford Roadster — which burns perhaps 50 gallons of gasoline per yr — wants the identical regulatory scrutiny as a daily-driven SUV that consumes 500 gallons yearly.
What Different States Get Proper
What’s loopy is that California is commonly an modern state that feels light-years forward of the remainder of the nation. However apparently, progress stops right here for California lawmakers. Texas exempts autos 25 years and older from emissions testing. Arizona does the identical for vehicles constructed earlier than 1981. Even environmentally aware states like Oregon and Washington have traditional automobile exemptions.
These states acknowledge what California refuses to acknowledge: traditional vehicles aren’t the enemy of environmental progress. They’re museum items that occur to run on gasoline as an alternative of sitting behind velvet ropes.
Virginia takes it a step additional with vintage license plates that price simply $50 and final without end — no annual renewals, no smog checks, simply recognition that some issues are value preserving. Maryland gives historic automobile tags with comparable advantages. Even New York — not precisely identified for regulatory restraint — has found out the best way to stability environmental issues with automotive heritage.
In the meantime, in Cali, Senate Invoice 712 had bipartisan assist, backing from automotive teams, and endorsement from collectors throughout the political spectrum. It wasn’t asking for the moon — simply recognition {that a} 35-year-old automobile pushed 1,000 miles per yr doesn’t pose the identical environmental risk as a every day driver.
Nevertheless it died within the Meeting Appropriations Committee with out even the courtesy of a public vote. No debate, no dialogue, only a quiet bureaucratic assassination that left 1000’s of fans questioning why their passion is being regulated out of existence.
The invoice’s sponsor, Senator Shannon Grove, referred to as traditional vehicles “sometimes pushed, rigorously maintained, and make up solely a fraction of vehicles on the highway.” She was being diplomatic. The reality is blunter: California killed an inexpensive compromise to guard a income stream whereas virtue-signaling about environmental safety.
“We’re not asking for something greater than what each different state has,” Jay Leno mentioned. “I imply, California is the strictest within the nation and can proceed to be. I imply, I lived right here within the 70s once they advised you 100 days a yr, don’t go outdoors. I imply, I’m all for emissions. I feel it’s an excellent factor. I maintain my vehicles operating completely. Nevertheless it’s such a small proportion.”
What We’re Actually Shedding
This isn’t nearly smog checks or registration charges. It’s about whether or not California nonetheless values the entrepreneurial spirit and mechanical ingenuity that constructed this state. Each traditional automobile represents somebody’s dream made actual — the manufacturing facility employee who saved for years to purchase that Camaro, {the teenager} who spent summers restoring a pickup truck, the immigrant household that noticed their first Mustang as proof they’d made it in America.
These vehicles join us to our previous in ways in which electrical autos, for all their technological sophistication, merely can’t. They remind us that California was as soon as the epicenter of American automobile tradition, the place hot-rodders and customized builders created the template for automotive enthusiasm worldwide.
Once we make it tougher to protect these mechanical time machines, we’re not simply shedding vehicles — we’re shedding the tales they inform and the connections they create. We’re selecting bureaucratic comfort over cultural preservation.
The answer isn’t difficult. Different states have confirmed that traditional automobile exemptions work with out environmental disaster. California may simply implement age-based exemptions with affordable safeguards — maybe requiring proof of restricted mileage or collector insurance coverage.
The state may create a “historic automobile” designation just like historic constructing preservation, recognizing that some vehicles deserve safety as cultural artifacts. Annual mileage limits may tackle any official environmental issues whereas acknowledging that these autos are essentially completely different from every day drivers.
California may even flip this right into a income alternative by particular license plates or registration charges that fund automotive museums and preservation applications. Think about channeling traditional automobile ardour into academic initiatives that train younger folks about mechanical engineering, American industrial historical past, and the evolution of transportation know-how.
The Golden State’s rejection of Leno’s Regulation represents every part improper with fashionable governance: bureaucratic inflexibility, income safety disguised as environmental concern, and tone-deaf disregard for cultural heritage. It’s the sort of shortsighted pondering that prioritizes paperwork over folks and regulation over motive. Hopefully, this isn’t the tip of the combat.
“I’m upset and pissed off that Leno’s Regulation was held within the Meeting Appropriations Committee listening to at this time, successfully killing the invoice. I’ve been working behind the scenes to satisfy with legislators and decision-makers to present Leno’s Regulation one of the best probability,” mentioned Senator Grove. “Sadly, the price that was given to this invoice by the affected departments was very excessive. Leno’s Regulation wouldn’t have made it this far with out YOU, the fans, together with Mr. Jay Leno. We have now traveled a great distance collectively the final 9 months to combat for a change to a really outdated regulation. We have now opened doorways with the onerous work we put into Leno’s Regulation, and I’m assured our work will probably be a part of the rationale that change is made.”
