FIH —
(1) Car production is not a welfare program for union auto workers and auto dealers. If it’s not needed, no need to force people to buy it, especially since making a new car takes a lot of energy. Ending is NOT always better than mending.
(2) We’ve reached a point of diminishing returns as far as gasoline internal combustion tech. Efficiency and emissions wise. Most of the advances were made in the 80s and 90s. The goal should be increased adoption of electric cars. We do that by making gas more expensive and electric car tech cheaper. And by building out longer-distance electric trains combined with Zipcar type programs to provide a “last 30 miles service.” This combination would get around the range limits of electric tech.
(3) Some states are actually scaling back smog testing since their air is clean enough by Federal standards, and edge cases are not worth catching. Or moving to an OBD2 only program and exempting pre-OBD2 cars (cheaper).
(4) I doubt that CA would go with internal combustion cars not being inspected, but rather only phoning home. Too easy to cheat since there’d be no visual.
