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To those of you in the 14 other states that have adopted California emission standards for your coming attractions, this appears to be a done deal.http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120127/D9SHGTI02.html

There may be court challenges to gut or delay it as there was with an earlier version but with car mfgs and consumer groups on board this time, not terribly likely much will change. If it holds, it won't be in full effect for a few years.

I noticed the article is accessed through the Excite website. My son-in-law was one of the first employees of Excite way before it was sold to AT&T. The stock options were very attractive, for awhile. They invested in their home instead of buying expensive sports cars and going on safari to Africa like may who worked for the company did. They also set aside enough money to pay the taxes on the exercised options, some or most of whom did not plan for this had had to go into bankruptcy. I did not know Excite was still around. Thanks

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For the record, emission controls actually lead to longer motor life which benefits the consumer, and thus, is why emission mandates have not been ruled unconstitutional by virtue of illegal use of eminent domain and seizure of assets.

However, there are already lots of zero emission vehicles on the market that actually clean the air they are ingesting.

This electric vehicle non-sense just demonstrates how only irresponsible individuals and the insane are taken seriosuly in today's society. In reality these electric cars are a waste of very valuable resources which will fortuitously become so scarce in the near future that this kind of crackpot non-sense will never be enforcible.

When I was overseas they had all these little 1500cc fours that ran great and forever on a gallon of gas. You can't buy a 1500cc four door sedan in the USA. Never mind a practical hatchback.

And besides, California is nuts anyway. If you go to East Los Angeles there are all sorts of immigrants driving around in old beat up old Chevies, belching smoke, and running fake license plates.

This kind of baloney only affects the gullible.

Also for the record: Air is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% all else.

Couldn't agree more. We can and do go nuts out here but unfortunately, in this case I think most of California is caught between two unmoving rocks --the EPA and their surrogate the Air Resources Board, and two hard places -- geography and prevailing winds.

This is just the latest attempt to satisfy the federal EPA which has levied massive fines for failure to clean the air enough -- standards which even half the population number couldn't meet.

No matter how clean the engine, winds blow whatever they emit over a few low mountain ranges into pockets where it can't escape because it runs into a big mountain. That large ozone or particulate number in the stagnant pockets is all the EPA sees or cares about--no matter the reason it's high. This time the hope is that a few million electric cars won't spit anything out and enough of those Chevys (which have many tame politicians on the payroll protecting their interests) can keep running. One of the past plans would have gone after some of those cars that were "modern" yet high polluters but the campaign contributions were paid in time so it was gutted. The cars are just the tip of the problem but very easy to target.

The other states which follow California auto standards are just along for the ride. I suppose they are free to opt out if plan is of no benefit to them. Manufactures though are pushing for a nationwide plan because they only want to build to one standard and right now, California Air Resources Board is setting it. I'm sure the EPA is delighted. Electric cars also help their CAFE number so now with a few tweaks stretching the time frame and the fact most will have a model to sell by then, they're all for a mandate.