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Health and Safety Code - HSC


Published: 2015-07-09

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Health and Safety Code - HSC

DIVISION 26. AIR RESOURCES [39000 - 44474]

  ( Division 26 repealed and added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 957. )

PART 5. VEHICULAR AIR POLLUTION CONTROL [43000 - 44299.91]

  ( Part 5 added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 957. )
CHAPTER 8. Smog Index Numbers [44250 - 44257]
  ( Chapter 8 added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. )

44250.  

The Legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:

(a) Existing programs to ensure that new motor vehicles sold in California emit less pollution may not be adequate to allow attainment of ambient air quality standards. Continued use of older high-emission motor vehicles, inadequate vehicle maintenance practices, and increases in vehicle miles traveled may overwhelm the gains from more stringent standards for new motor vehicles, and defeat state and local efforts to improve air quality.

(b) Substantial additional reductions in vehicle emissions can be achieved by retrofitting existing motor vehicles, enhancing vehicle maintenance practices, and installing additional pollution control equipment on new motor vehicles operated in nonattainment areas. Existing state programs are an impediment to the use of retrofits and additional equipment to reduce vehicle emissions and should be streamlined.

(c) Information on vehicle emissions should be provided to the driving public to encourage the manufacture and purchase of clean burning vehicles, to encourage retrofits of motor vehicles to reduce emissions, to encourage the application of enhanced motor vehicle maintenance practices on a routine basis, and to encourage reductions in vehicle miles traveled.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. Effective January 1, 1995. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Inoperative five years after operative date. Repealed on January 1 after inoperative date, pursuant to Section 44257.)

44251.  

(a) The state board shall specify smog index numbers for new light-duty passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks with a gross vehicle weight up to 6,000 pounds to be sold in California. That smog index shall be based on certification data quantifying tailpipe and evaporative emissions of ozone precursor chemicals for classes of vehicles.

(b) For diesel fuel vehicles, the smog index shall be based on certification data quantifying tailpipe emissions of ozone precursor chemicals and particulate matter. Particulate emissions from diesel fuel vehicles certified to model year standards that did not include a particulate limit may be assumed to be equal to particulate emissions for model year 1985 diesel fuel vehicles.

(c) The state board shall specify the relative weight of emissions of ozone precursor chemicals and particulates in the smog index values for diesel vehicles. This weighting shall be based on the relative importance of each category of emissions to air quality problems in California.

(d) Smog index number 1.0 shall be assigned to a hypothetical light-duty passenger vehicle, a hypothetical light-duty truck with a gross vehicle weight of 3,750 pounds or less, and a hypothetical light-duty truck with a gross vehicle weight of greater than 3,750 pounds up to 6,000 pounds, emitting the maximum amount of pollution allowed for that class of vehicle certified for sale in this state as of the January 1 immediately preceding the operative date of this section. The state board shall determine the existing class or classes of vehicles to which the smog index shall be applied.

(Amended (as added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192) by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1154, Sec. 28. Effective September 30, 1996. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Inoperative five years after operative date. Repealed on January 1 after inoperative date, pursuant to Section 44257.)

44252.  

The state board, in consultation with the bureau, shall establish smog index numbers for classes or categories of vehicles that may be modified by the use of an emissions retrofit device.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. Effective January 1, 1995. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Inoperative five years after operative date. Repealed on January 1 after inoperative date, pursuant to Section 44257.)

44253.  

If the Environmental Protection Agency adopts a system that provides for the assignment of one or more index numbers to vehicles in a manner, and for purposes, similar to the smog index provided for in this chapter, the state board shall adopt the index numbers assigned to vehicles by the Environmental Protection Agency as the smog index, but shall also specify a smog index consistent with the federal index system for any vehicle subject to this chapter for which the Environmental Protection Agency has not specified an index number.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. Effective January 1, 1995. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Inoperative five years after operative date. Repealed on January 1 after inoperative date, pursuant to Section 44257.)

44254.  

(a) The state board shall publish the smog index numbers in a form that is convenient for use by the Department of Motor Vehicles, the bureau, vehicle owners, manufacturers, dealers, and consumers shopping for a new or used motor vehicle of a particular type.

(b) The state board, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency, shall adopt regulations specifying a form of decal to be affixed by manufacturers to new motor vehicles pursuant to Section 43200.5 to inform purchasers of the smog index for the vehicle, a smog index chart listing vehicle model years and the corresponding smog index for that model year to be affixed by motor vehicles dealers to used motor vehicles pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 43705, and information to inform purchasers of the significance of the smog index and smog index chart.

(c) The state board, in consultation with the Department of Motor Vehicles, shall specify a form of notice to be provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles to each owner of a motor vehicle registered in this state, informing the owner of the smog index for the vehicle and the significance of the smog index.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. Effective January 1, 1995. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Inoperative five years after operative date. Repealed on January 1 after inoperative date, pursuant to Section 44257.)

44257.  

This chapter shall become inoperative five years from the date determined pursuant to Section 32 of the act adding this chapter, and on the January 1 following that date is repealed.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1192, Sec. 31. Effective January 1, 1995. Operative on date prescribed by Sec. 32 of Ch. 1192. Repealed on date prescribed by its own provisions. Note: Termination clause affects Chapter 8, commencing with Section 44250.)