Disecting The Assembly Bill 1493

There are millions of laws that affect our lives everyday and we do not even realize the immense impact it has on each particular area that forms our complex society. Social, market, economic and political factors are just some aspects that are influenced by laws and how we as consumers react to them. In fact, the concept of LAW is very broad. Black's Law Dictionary defines it as a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority and having binding legal force. It is said by many that the main function of a law is to guide us as citizens and to establish a tangible enforcement of what is right and what is wrong. Yet, it has its specific functions: keeping the peace, shaping moral standards, promoting social justice, maintaining the status quo, facilitating orderly change, facilitating planning, providing a basis for compromise, and maximizing individual freedom . The law to be addressed is the Assembly Bill 1493 that was signed by California's Governor, Gray Davis, on July 22, 2002. This was a great step forward in the fight to stop Global Warming being the nation's first law to require automakers to limit emissions greenhouse gases.

To begin to scrutinize acutely into the reasoning and effects this law has and will have in our society we must first address its history and distinct factors that shaped the law. In the postwar years some pollution crises began to occur that got the population off guard because these issues were never seen before. A perfect example is the Temperature Inversion in 1948 in a small town named Donora in Pennsylvania. The tragedy consisted of a smoke cloud of sulfur dioxide that never cleared away in a steel mill for several days killing 19 people. Later in 1952, a cloud of smog in London killed 4,000 people followed by another smog problem in 1953 that hit New York City and killed 200 people. This caused a new concern for air pollution in the US and made them realize the health hazards of air pollution.

Within a short time a new source of air contamination had joined the cause, automobile emissions. After World War II thousands of vehicles were produced and sold which eventually intensified the spread of air pollution. With the cars contaminating the air along with the manufacturing discharges newer and more sources of pollutants endangered major cities throughout the US. Doctors all over the US found out that these auto emissions can cause headaches, contribute to lung cancer, emphysema, and various other respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and have been linked to low birth weight in infants. They also modify weather conditions, damage vegetation, and eat away at rubber, textiles, dyes, and other materials.

Even though air pollution had definitely become an evident fast growing problem in the US, it was not on the priorities list for automobile manufacturers, oil companies and the public in general. However, Los Angeles with its streets crammed with cars, it had front row seats to the problem. The city became the 1st to show public concern and opened up laboratories focused on understanding the effects of this pollution. In addition, the State of California went on to create the 1st car emission standards. In 1947 the amount of sulfur dioxide in the air had been reduced because the use of coal and fuel oils for industrial purposes had been banned. Yet, they noticed that the amount of smog did not decrease with the new regulations instead it had increased. By 1950 scientist had realized that the main contributor were the car emissions which were produced from four sources: the carburetor, crankcase blowby, engine exhaust, and the fuel tank. These discoveries were vital for soon-to-come emissions control technologies.

Many emission control devices began to be developed in California along with some new legislation. The automobile industry was not thrilled to make the process go smoothly because this change was costing them time and money to redesign their cars. In fact, they ended making the emission control devices standard on their cars because they were forced by legislation. Moreover, they had to use their resources to research on how to eliminate the car emissions. This brought about the crankcase blowby device that helped reduce the amount of pollution. Nonetheless, this later showed a flaw with the device but was addressed with the creation of the catalytic exhaust device. Leaded fuel was still used in this time and scientist soon figured out that leaded fuel damaged the catalytic device so this brought about the movement to eliminate leaded fuel. This took a while to take place, finally phasing out leaded fuel completely until 1986.

By the 1960's it became apparent that the smog problem was not limited to California and began to be seen as a national concern requiring the attention of the federal government. Hence laws began moving toward the recognition of the problem and eventually Acts were made. The first act to be created was the 1963 Clean Air Act. This act gave limited enforcement power over interstate pollution to the federal government. Later the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Act of 1965 was created, which had standards just like the ones that were required in the state of California, except that it applied nationally. Then in 1967 the federal legislation was given the power to control lead emissions with the Air Quality Act.

Unfortunately, the results of these acts were not as planned and brought about discontent among the citizens and pressured for some action. The government responded by creating the 1970 Clean Air Amendments. This act not only dealt with auto emissions but also included stationary sources of pollution. This act contained the most rigorous and strict air pollution law ever enforced in the US. This act seemed to be the solution because it addressed the issue on a national level and was very stringent. However, throughout the years it became apparent that not every city in the United States had the same amount of pollution within the air. Small cities like Dayton, Ohio could never be compared with the amount of air contamination Los Angeles could have. Nonetheless, they both were held under the same law. This brought about the Clean Air Amendments of 1990. The main idea was to categorize each city according to the severity of their emission problems and how far they had progressed on previous goals they had set up. The amendment constituted that different actions were to be required based on each city's particular classification.

In addition, these amendments made the emission standards more demanding. This amendment stated that any vehicle model from the years 1996 to 2003 had to go by the emission standard. This entire movement that kept making emission laws more stringent eventually got innovations going throughout the automobile industry