Originally Posted by
AnthrAxNSB
That's kind of harsh, eh? You've actually quoted a news article about the exective orders, and the news article may be mistaken, misleading, or understating the implications. They may simply not know enough. The exective order is ambiguous and written in broad terms. It's unclear whether Florida seeks to implement all of California's emission standards (note that the order references Title 13, which is essentially every California regulation of automobiles), or specifically those still under debate from a 2005 plan. I'm under the impression it's the latter, but I have seen nothing that officially substantiates my belief. In other words, I think you're correct, but I can understand why others would be worried that you're not.
I wrote over in Pit Stop about this and there is no testing involved under this. As I also mentioned Pennsylvania is one of those states seeking to adopt California standards, but if you go that state you will find that only about 50% of the counties there test (you can imagine which ones...Pittsburgh/Philly metro areas).
Crist was also asked about emissons inspections and he noted he preferred to have the auto industry do its part.
Where the horror story would come about is if some legislation got in and passed to start up the emissions testing...this is the ONLY WAY it would come about, as an executive order cannot fund something. Crist is only chaning environmental regulations (which requires no funding whatsover to be implemented in the case of saying to Ford, Toyota, etc...before you had to meet Federal Emissions Regulations of X to sell your new vehicles here, but now you have to meet X).
Given high property taxes, insurance, water shortages, I think this is a small way Crist is helping the environment without passing it on the consumers (in the form of emissions testing).
Keep in mind, a lot of cars, even in good condition won't pass California emissions regulations here in Florida. You'd have to be a dope to do this, especially when the real problem is diesel rigs and industrial pollution. In fact one of the regulations deals with diesel motor idling (not an emission test, but how much time a diesel engine say on a truck can stay at idle).