Steve_N: just to give you some background: I'm Irish, now living in the US. Also spent 4 years in the UK at University, and remember very well what happened when both countries went fully-unleaded (and subsequently introduced emissions controls). A few things regarding that:
Steve_N wrote:
Oh dear. It sounds like you guys are having the same issues we have in the Uk
Over here our so called “elected” dirtbags have been on the anti diesel warpath for a couple of years now. After 15 or so years of pushing diesel hard, almost overnight it all changed.
The parallels here with the situation in the UK (and rest of Europe) are staggering. It hasn't quite reached the same point yet, but I can see it sliding that way.
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It’s all a bit sneakier over here though, first the price of vehicle tax was put up on high polluting vehicles, which suddenly and based on some very dodgy science, diesel had become. Then the price of diesel started to creep up, as much as 15pence per litre above petrol. And trust me, our fuel prices are bloody criminal as it is.
If we were driving from Northern Ireland back into the Republic (or taking the ferry back, etc.), it used to be that the last thing we'd do before crossing the border was fill up the car because petrol (and diesel) prices were 20% to 30% lower. Now it's the other way around - fill up before entering the North, or getting on the boat in Ireland.
What annoys me is that the people fighting the hardest to price diesel out of the market fail to understand how much industry and commerce are dependent on it. Ships, HGVs, trains, generators, etc. all run on the stuff. By pushing up the price of the fuel (even when purchased at a reduced VAT rate), there are knock-on effects on the economy. And I'd like to know how an electrical generator is supposed to be powered by electricity in order to generate electricity.
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We also have an MOT test over here. It is supposed to be an annual vehicle safety test. But over the years it has become less about safety and more about governmental control. It has been illegal for some years to tamper in any way with emissions systems, but they have now made it part of the test, so if it has been, it gets classed as defective and you cant use it on the road until it is put back to manufacturers spec.They also check emissions, which if over manufacturers spec, is also a fail.
Just like California (more on them in a bit), except that California only tests for emissions, not roadworthiness.
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There are all sorts that get checked, including your number plate, (License plate) which must have a British standards label on it, the plate must be a certain size, letters must be a certain size etc. Why?? Safety?? Nope, so that the thousands of ANPR camera’s that are dotted around this little island can read them, just for police use though, yeah right.
Ugh, don't get me started on the plate-reading cameras. We have unmarked police cars that drive around here doing nothing but recording plates. They may be unmarked, but the camera on each corner as well as over the B-pillars are dead giveaways. Where and when I go about my lawful business (even if it is on a public roadway) is
none of government or law enforcement's business.
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Anyway back to diesel, there is now a huge push on electric vehicles, constant ads on tv, electric vehicles pay no road tax & you get a government incentive payment to put towards the price of the vehicle. Several cities, and more are following suit, are charging us penalty fees for driving in them, again based on how polluting your vehicle is, and of course a 2.8 diesel is right up there!! Hybrid or electric vehicles are of course free. The plan is quite simple, try to make owning a diesel so expensive & inconvenient that everyone gives up on them. Petrol will of course follow quickly behind.
California and some other states are looking into similar schemes as well as per-mile road pricing. I'd like to know how motorists can legally be deprived of the use of roads that their taxes built, or be charged for driving on roads that were similarly-funded.
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The environmentalists are the biggest voice now in the UK, despite the use of some very shaky science at times. Political parties want to be seen to be “green” and as long as they are, they can push through whatever political doo doo they like whilst all the time protecting the businesses & industries that are actually polluting the crap out of us all. Oh and on top of all this, if the police see or suspect that your vehicle is modified they can pull you & give you a vehicle defect order, and you guessed it, fix it & take it to an MOT station to get inspected within 14 days or it’s illegal to use on the road.
Apparently, so I’m told, this is a free country!!
Freedom=
A friend of ours from Bulgaria summed it up best: "I escaped Communism twice: once when I left Bulgaria for the US in 1985, and again when I moved out of California and into Colorado in 2004."
Back to California for a moment: much of the way emissions testing was handled in the UK (and, eventually, Ireland, following on from the introduction of the NCT (MOT equivalent) in 2000) was based on how California had implemented its regulations in that regard. Not all of it, but both governments heavily studied the processes and procedures there as well as in other European countries. The one part that they practically copied wholesale was that there is no responsibility to the public in terms of the regulations that CARB passes - if, tomorrow, they decided that any vehicle over 10 years old was automatically considered to be a gross polluter (a term you never, EVER want to see on a vehicle's failed smog test in California), only people with cars 10 years old or newer could legally drive them, and there would be ZERO recourse.
I've fought with CARB in the past, and they are one of the worst government agencies to have to go up against. It is an extremely anti-car (and anti-motorist) organisation, with the legal power to force you into having to either destroy your vehicle or send it out of California at their whim. I honestly can't think of another agency that can do that, on the spot and in the way that they can, with virtually no chance of lodging (let alone winning) an appeal. They did manage to save the world, however, by forcing me to sell my 1985 Citroën CX25 GTi (itself sold new in California, and fully-meeting all California requirements of the time) to a person in Illinois, so at least they've done their job to the letter.
Oh, yes - this is also the agency that promised a year-by-year rolling emissions exemption for cars 25 years or older. That then became 30 years, followed by sticking the date at pre-1976 forever (though emissions equipment fitted since 1968 now has to remain on the vehicle and be functional, even if it's not being tested). I've also had them revise emissions targets on vehicles I've owned above what they were originally were, call for annual testing out of the blue on vehicles that are only supposed to be tested every other year, and send me letters telling me that they
thought I somehow faked results on a vehicle's smog test because it passed too cleanly and I'd have to bring it in - at my expense - for inspection.
I'll stop there before I get into a rant about why moving out of California was one of the best things we ever did.