CHATSWORTH : Hearing on Cars, Clean Air Draws Residents

A discussion of cars and clean air Monday drew participants from across California, including dozens from Chatsworth, in an unusual legislative hearing broadcast on interactive cable television.

The high-tech hearing was called “a prototype for the future . . . to bring government back to the people” by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who chaired the meeting of the Assembly Transportation Committee from Sacramento.

Twelve students from the Monroe Law and Government Magnet High School in Sepulveda traveled to the studios of West Valley Cablevision to testify on proposed changes to California’s smog-check regulations.

Environmental activists, business and community leaders were also at the studios to view the proceedings, offer testimony and ask questions. Additional comments and questions were fielded from a statewide cable television audience on a toll-free number.

Katz is opposed to a federal Environmental Protection Agency proposal to separate California’s smog-testing sites from repair facilities and raise the limit on repair costs from a sliding scale of $50 to $300 to a flat $450 limit. The EPA plan would have 100 “test-only” sites around the state and employ new high-tech equipment that would render current testing devices virtually obsolete.

The EPA claims that the state’s existing vehicle smog-check program, originally enacted in 1984 and upgraded in 1990, does not meet clean air goals. California must now adopt the EPA plan or submit a new one by November or risk losing $250 million in federal highway funds and have previously approved transportation projects shut down.

Much of the three-hour hearing centered on two separate Senate bills, one introduced by Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale) and another by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside).

Presley’s bill calls for the adoption of a hybrid smog-check program, which retains same elements of the current decentralized approach that has private contractors, usually repair facilities, conducting smog checks, and a centralized program that would have a limited number of repair facilities authorized to do smog checks.

Russell’s bill calls for enhanced inspection and maintenance under the current system with an emphasis on remote emissions testing as a way of ensuring better enforcement of state vehicle emission standards.