The EPA is seeking to ban the freedom of individuals within the USA to convert street cars into race cars.
WUWT reader Wolfpack987 writes:
Another example of government abuse of power, the EPA is seeking to remove more freedoms from American citizens in the name of the environment, by prohibiting the act of converting street cars into race cars. The sheer ridiculousness of this move to can be measured by how little of an impact it will have on the environment, given how little the number of cars converted into racecars per year.
Story:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a regulation to prohibit conversion of vehicles originally designed for on-road use into racecars. The regulation would also make the sale of certain products for use on such vehicles illegal. The proposed regulation was contained within a non-related proposed regulation entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2.”
The regulation would impact all vehicle types, including the sports cars, sedans and hatch-backs commonly converted strictly for use at the track. While the Clean Air Act prohibits certain modifications to motor vehicles, it is clear that vehicles built or modified for racing, and not used on the streets, are not the “motor vehicles” that Congress intended to regulate.
“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.”
SEMA submitted comments in opposition to the regulation and met with the EPA to confirm the agency’s intentions. The EPA indicated that the regulation would prohibit conversion of vehicles into racecars and make the sale of certain emissions-related parts for use on converted vehicles illegal. Working with other affected organizations, including those representing legions of professional and hobbyist racers and fans, SEMA will continue to oppose the regulation through the administrative process and will seek congressional support and judicial intervention as necessary.
The EPA has indicated it expects to publish final regulations by July 2016.
https://www.sema.org/news/2016/02/08/epa-seeks-to-prohibit-conversion-of-vehicles-into-racecars
This is truly insane, the amount of emissions produced by race cars on any given day is miniscule in comparison to the total amount of cars and emissions in the USA every day. They are making a ham-handed attempt at solving a non-existent problem.
![number-of-vehicles-in-the-united-states-since-1990[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/number-of-vehicles-in-the-united-states-since-19901.png?quality=75)
This is what happens when bureaucracy runs out of things to do, they up the ante, completely unaware of how ridiculous they look or how pointless the idea is.
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“This is what happens when bureaucracy runs out of things to do, they up the ante, completely unaware of how ridiculous they look or how pointless the idea is.”
I disagree. Though the effect is similar, the EPA has been captured by wild-eyed activists, rather than merely occupied by bored bureaucrats. This makes it worse than we thought, since their zeal to save the world makes them obdurate and difficult to change. It will require a steely will to evict or neuter them.
They are MOAISTS. I dealt with these guys at Berkeley in 1969. They are fanatical, cruel and want to deprive us of life and liberty and have us wear Mao suits and wave the little red book. They are monsters and highly dangerous people.
Yes. Mixed in with these are the earnest and well-intentioned, who serve to calm public apprehension whenever the fanatics overstep the mark. They remain credible because they have no agenda beyond saving the environment: either they’re misled, fail to closely examine the evidence for dangerous anthropogenic global warming or fail properly to consider the consequences of their climate policy. Thus the light of truth shines honestly in their eyes and reassures further gullible minds. But they may be amenable to scientific reasoning; the fanatics are beyond it.
That is what always happens to bureaucracy.
Notice how they are not targeting smoker cars of low income drivers or city buses or low riders or drug dealer limos. This is a safe surgical strike between and around the demographic subgroups.
“Notice how they are not targeting smoker cars of low income drivers …”
Not yet. There are millions of older “pre-smog” vehicles exempt from emissions standards. Those are the low-hanging fruit. Goodbye collector and hotrod car cultures as we know it. Just you wait.
My 55 Chevy, for example.
’55 with original 265 cubes engine, or was it bumped to something like a 283 w/ Power Pack heads?
Alan Robertson commented: “….’55 with original 265 cubes engine, or was it bumped to something like a 283 w/ Power Pack heads?..”
Part of my youth was spent on a ’55 Chevy (Bel Aire, of course!), 4″ bore on a 283 block for 301 CI, dual quad carburetors, heads reworked by Jocko, 1/2″ lift Howard flat tappet cam, Schaefer aluminum clutch and flywheel assembly, 456 rear end with welded up spider gears, slicks. During the “gas wars” in SoCal you could buy a gallon for 10 cents! There are too many Boomer gear heads for the EPA to deal with.
It was a panel van which I put in a souped-up engine.
The next president needs to downsize the EPA, starting at the top, and rescind masses of regs.
Also, fire anyone working for the IRS who doesn’t pay their taxes.
“Red Barchetta” anyone? (just a Rush reference for all you Canucks out there)…..
To me this has the feel of an undercover black op. Someone or ones in the EPA don’t want another democrat government. They realise how suicidally unpopular it will be to interfere with the widespread hobby of souping up cars. Their servile drone colleagues do not, and will sleepwalk to extinction. Here’s hoping, anyhow.
http://s1057430895.t.en25.com/e/es?s=1057430895&e=782&elq=d88b6b23c6ea4461bbce6705fab0ce11&elqaid=171&elqat=1&elqTrackId=9d71791d1ff841f9aed005d26649b560
Oops – Forgot the link…
Dear Michael Roberts,
I don’t know that car, but, I have great sympathy for someone trying his best to post a video and failing. I’ve been there. Here ya go!
“Red Barchetta” — Rush (the rock group, not Limbaugh, lol)
(youtube)
Your sister video enthusiast,
Janice
That is a big block Chrysler, I can’t see the front deck casting to tell if it’s a 335hp 383, or a 375hp 440.
I have a lot of fond memories of a 3 2bbl 440 🙂
Janice, let’s hope that song is not an accurate prediction of future “motor laws”.
Hi, Pop! 🙂
Yes, indeed. No “air car” law enforcement vehicles, yet… . LOL, if they have to use electric cars, we muscle car enthusiasts will be juuuust fine. Oh. That’s right. Geddy Lee, et. al. didn’t have armed drones in their minds when they performed that tune… .
NOT — GOING — TO — WORRY — ABOUT — IT.
What, me worry? Heh.
And, thanks, Poppy Piasa, for saying something about the lyrics. I only posted that video to help out Mr. Roberts (I wasn’t a big Rush fan). Went and looked up the lyrics, thanks to you.
Keep the rubber side down! 🙂
Janice
Ever heard of socialism?
It’s a more palateable term of reference they prefer than communism.
As in Australia you need only look at the hierarchy of who is at the head of the snake that sees to impose it’s will on the people.
That the snake has like minded people at the head of public institutions is no suprise.
They were there long before your “king” snake in Obama assumed the reigns of power.
They are a minority so it’s not their actual numbers you should fear, it’s what this minority controls.
Outside your internal revenue service, the EPA would have to represent your governments largest behemoth that imposes it’s will on the American people.
We have a publicly funded broadcaster that does similar things with government manipulation if the government of the day refuses to fall in behind.
These government “controlled” and funded institutions are supposed to be politicaly neutral. Is that the case with “your” EPA?
The scary thing is an election won by a different persuasion than what you have now would have a monumental task of bringing the EPA to heel.
Like it or not , Trump and Cruz are your best shot at reforming or abolishing them.
The other two fighting it out will only gaurante more of the same.
The Democratic party, as you point out, is not the democratic party of their parents.
We in Australia have the equivalent in the labor party that is not the labor party of the seventy, eighties or nineties.
A communist is a socialist who’s in a hurry.
MarkW, thanks. But whether socialist or communist, they both lead to dictatorship. But you are correct, the communist get there a decade or so sooner.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=red+barchetta&&view=detail&mid=E92302E28A72C1B6EBF3E92302E28A72C1B6EBF3&FORM=VRDGAR
Second time’s a charm? Unless you want to attend the seminar I posted….
Michael
I never watch un-labeled links. Lazy sod.
I’ll take that criticism. I posted from my workplace computer (during break) and was unaware of the security levels which alter links (moderators know where I post from during the work day hours). Mea culpa, I will strive for a better result in the future. Praise the Lord (and pass the ammunition) my local friend-in-WUWT Janice saved the day and posted what I was unable to.
Wait until they ban sports because athletes breathe out more CO2 than other people. Their benchmark will be a frail 90 year old on life support. So we will all have to pay a CAGW CO2 tax.
Certainly they will ban squirting Champagne over each other when a championship is won. I kind of wish they wouldn’t put such a stress on the supply of it and the resultant price. If I had a sports team that won, I would give them soda water to drench each other and a bottle each of bubbly to drink!!!
The same sort of people banned booze back in 1920. No more bubbly for you, buddy.
The next thing to ban would be rockets. They emits way too much pollution of any kind. And if the fuel iself is harmless, the poduction of it is not.
We are nearing the end of the internal combustion engine, Pretty soon they will decide how much horsepower is enough. Great sadness abounds.
Look what the EPA did to VW. I bet that if you tested GM or Ford they would also Fail .
NE Ohio has smog testing, your typical newish gas engine is way cleaner then the requirements.
Which makes this double sucky, as you could do anything you wanted as long as you had cat’s and it passed the sniffer.
To paraphrase Marie Antoinette – “Let them race Teslas”
For your own good, of course.
https://youtu.be/6Dnm8N9JbvU
Not so good if you want to actually turn. While they might turn well, weight is the enemy.
I was hoping Carbon Fiber or Carbon Nanotube fiber would drop car weight under the low 2,000’s lbs, prior to the stupidity.
Do you realise who Marie Antoinette was?
Since they are only going 1/4 mile, you can get rid of most of the batteries.
It’s not just drag cars would be affected by the proposal – real race cars, where cornering and braking are required, would also be banned.
Races would need to be dramatically shorter for Teslas and their ilk. Or else they would need to develop battery swaps for real (not staged demos, rigged for a media release)
Those are, my preference is multi-mile laps with turns.
I’m wondering how the EPA would enforce such a rule.
If I buy a car and convert it into a all out race car, or a modified car that occasionally goes to the track, how are they even going to know?
An all out race car will never be registered for road use, so how do they follow it.
A modified car for mostly street use, usually has to pass the local government emissions testing anyways, before it can be registered / licensed.
Informants and random checkpoints doubling as sobriety check points.
Part of the regulation included making it illegal to sell the parts needed to modify your car in that manner.
Most serious hot rodders make their own parts. They do not buy them.
This is a silly comment. F1 makes their own parts, not many “Hot Rodders” have their own CAM grinders, or head casting facility, let alone the hundreds of other parts beyond the typical shop’s ability to manufacturer.
And remember you same “Most”
micro6500
I used to work in an automotive machine shop. We did a lot of custom work for racers who could not get high performance parts for their cars. Mostly engine and transmission parts. But suspension, steering and brakes also. For drag racing, slalom/ autocross, road racing and hill climb. Many of the racers fabricated a lot of their own parts, particularly intake and exhaust systems for turbo charged engines. Very time consuming to get something that works inside of existing body work, and produces huge horsepower gains.
Anyway… my point is, if somebody wants to modify their existing car, and make lots of horsepower, and improve the handling, it can be done. Even if there is no manufacturer of aftermarket parts.
Since police cars will soon have a top allowed speed of 40 mph, they will have to rely on cameras to send the bill to the offender or seize the tax refund alongside the ACA enforcement action. Well since police are also targeted in the new progressive hit list, it will be up to the EPA patrol persons, a network of neighborhood informants, and cameras.
…and EPA drones
It will save lives though. Stupid americans like Paul Walker risking lives allowing a modded Carrera GT which is unstable out of the factory to be driven so recklessly it caused both his and his pal’s deaths.
I’d ban stupid undrivable crud like Corvettes as well as limiting speeds to 100mph.
Save it for the race track… real or one in your xbox.
Wu, Paul Walker should get a Darwin award on your analysis.
1) Paul Walker was not driving, he was the passenger.
2) The Porsche Carrera GT involved was factory stock, not modified.
“Carrera GT which is unstable out of the factory” … What on earth are you talking about? Please explain yourself and cite references. I would agree that it was driven irresponsibly … but, once again, people kill people, guns don’t kill people. As to a Corvette being “undrivable?” Again, where is this coming from? I’m no Vette fan, having 2 Porsches in the garage. but it is hardly “undrivable.” You just don’t like cars. And no, I don’t have an xbox.
Paul Walker’s Death: Porsche Carrera GT a ‘Batshit Crazy Car’
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paul-walkers-death-porsche-carrera-661728
I love cars unfortunately there are far too many people who take risks in residential areas. Although Walker wasn’t driving, he allowed his pal to do so. Recklessly.
Turning at high revs is for the race track. Controlling a slide in a Carrera GT is difficult, so is cornering aggressively.
In the UK just about everybody who tunes, pimps, whatever their car is a boy/girl racer. These youth emulate great fun looking stunts in fast and furious, race where there’s no cctv and reckon if they are flat through a blind corner there’s no chance of hitting a man and his dog.
Speed kills. It’s immature and selfish. I’m all for autobahns and race track days and marvels in engineering like the Veyron… as long as it won’t hurt anyone else, especially children and their pets. My favourite sport is motorsport and I am fanatical about F1.
The german solution of limiting to 155 won’t work. It’s acceleration and torque that’s the problem. If the world wasn’t so into spying on citizens I’d suggest a gps-activated limiting device based on location. Taking away driving licence for even the smallest infraction is another.
Can’t behave yourself? Take the bus.
I love how the socialists amongst us believe that it is their job in life to prevent others from doing things the socialists disapprove of.
If you thought Obama and the EPA were bad, just wait when Sanders or Clinton gets the job. You’ll have seen nothing.
Not this time. We’re going to get a Republican, come what may.
We may see a Republican, but will we be able to tell the difference?
This issue is more than just your average bureaucracy imposing strangulation regulations on a populace.
It is a selective effort to target, beginning with a small minority, then extending it’s tentacles to grab more small groups in sequence. It’s not even a matter of Science with these people. It’s a matter of chipping away, eroding, and undermining.
Divided societies are easy prey, and that’s the key to shutting off the spigot from the Poison Tank.
So keep writing, keep up the pressure on the EPA. Never let them sneak anything while nobody’s looking.
“The sheer ridiculousness of this move to can be measured by how little of an impact it will have on the environment, given
how little[that there is NO proven impact on “the environment” of any significance of human CO2 emissions at all.]CO2 EMISSIONS UP AND ACCELERATING. WARMING STOPPED**.
**(a short-term, tiny, spike here and there do not obliterate the loooong plateau in surface temp. trend since ~1998; further, models driven by CO2 failed utterly to project that plateau).
Or I might add Janice, the even longer slow cooling since the Holocene optimum (oh and Thursday last week)
Yes! Thank you, Bob L — great point.
Proposing this useless, anti-American reg in an election year showns how detached from reality EPA has become. Unconstitutional CPP, Gold King mine cleanup catastrophe happening as a local geologist predicted, failure in Flint water supply (lead), the stupid over reach rural waterway reg proposal, now this. They are asking to be chopped. Bureaucrats run amok.
some temporary good news ??
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/268843-supreme-court-blocks-obamas-climate-rule-for-power-plants
Big deal. Chief Justice Roberts could have decided this preliminary injunction himself, per SCOTUS custom and my expectation posted last week. Took it to the full SCOTUS! Sends a rather strong message that EPA will lose on appeal.
sorry to miss your post
been busy in the local battle to ban bird and bat Cuisinarts – (maybe too much alliteration there)
Chief Justice Roberts must have known he had the votes as administration claims this is “unprecedented” and what all other superlatives.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/windmills-bernies-mind-8496.html
Bubba Cow
Way to go, Bubba! 🙂
It was only a 5-4 decision.
So we will now have to bid up the price for old cars from Havana as a result.
A curiosity is: The fuel running those old cars in Cuba is it lead free or high octane? The few times I’ve seen them in the background of reports I’ve never noticed the tell tale knocking though I guess that could be filtered out.
That is because they are pedaling them. Ran out of parts in ’81. 😉
Well then they should go to Hollywood and ban all the pyrotechnics used on movie sets and other productions. No carbon offsets either. Then they can go to Hell and ask the Devil himself to shut er down.
another memo from President Who.
Well a cigarette boat is just mulch to be, when up against a gas turbine hydrofoil destroyer. I’ve seen one of those in full song going, out of Key West Harbor. They do not look pretty when viewed from in front of the bow.
G