There has been a lot of talk about the new bill try to get passed by congress. Bill S.1766. Specifically, everyone's attentions has been drawn to section 803. First off, i would like to state that everyone is over-exaggerating this section. The general concept that everyone has, thanks to sites like Summit Racing is that, if passed, this will allow the government to seize and destroy fuel inefficient cars that are over fifteen years of age. This means that if your car was made in 1987, they could very well say, 'Your car sucks, so kiss it goodbye". This is the message spreading everywhere, including in forums of large sites such as Offroad.com. Other sites, like Enjoy the Drive have created a system to create a letter, and write/email it to everyone senator in your area, determined upon your zip code. An interesting idea. But everyone is still missing the big picture.
Section 803 states, "The Secretary shall establish a program, to be known as the 'National Motor Vehicle Efficiency Program,' under which the Secretary shall provide grants to States to operate programs to offer owners of passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks manufactured in model years more than 15 years prior to the fiscal year in which appropriations are made under subsection (d) to provide financial incentives to scrap such automobiles and to replace them with automobiles with higher fuel efficiency."
The section goes on to state that all vehicles scrapped in this manner must be currently registered in the state, be operational at the time they are turned in, and restricts owners (excluding non-profit organizations) from turning in more than one car in a 12 month period.
What does this mean? It means you cant get rid of that junk in your backyard this way, nor can you buy a car from a junkyard for fifty bucks and expect to get a return for turning it in.
This brings about several questions, the first being this: What is the method for which they are going to determine the dollar worth of the car? If they are going to base it upon book value, then most cars that get turned in will be for very little money, as the books show prices decreasing for numerous cars. If they base it on a case-by-case status, i.e., what was done to it, or what condition it currently is in, then many people will take the state to court trying to prove that their car is worth 'more'.
Another problem is for fellow car-enthusiasts such as myself. If this program goes into effect, and it met with positive consumer response, then where will i find parts for my car or truck? These vehicles are not going to junkyards to sit for future generations to plunder. They are going to the scrap yard. That means that all of us out there with 'vintage' cars (60's, 70's muscle cars, etc), or cars that are about to become considered 'vintage' are about to get screwed out of a lot of parts for our cars.
This article is specifically aimed at 'fuel inefficient' cars, but i wonder what kind of money and resources (i.e., fuel) it would take to effectively keep this plan in motion, and if it is going to generate money by encouraging people to buy newer cars, or if it is going to just waste more energy, and create more pollution to scrap all these millions of cars, and waste more energy and create even more pollution creating all the special parts for our cars, especially are the specially formed plastics used in modern cars these days. So maybe these sites had the right idea after all. Maybe this section shouldnt be allowed to make it into the final version of the bill being shown before congress.
More information:
The bill S.1766 can be found online in its entirety (in .pdf format) at this site. Section 803 can be found on pages 152-155. The entire bill is 530 pages long. [note: it takes a while to download for viewing]
If you are interested in petitioning this section, then you can click here, which will load a section of enjoythedrive's site. This will allow you to find out who your legislators are, create a template for letters for you to print out, and will also allow you do email any legislators who have email addresses.
I urge anyone in this field to review this information, so that you can make an educated opinion as to whether or not you feel obligated to petition section 803 or not...
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"to rice", in it's most basic form, is to take a vehicle that isn't in any way expensive, high performance, or even very attractive in most cases, and attach all sorts of silly things like giant chrome exhausts and large, unwieldy spoilers to make it seem "better" or "faster".