WD wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:04:And, I read in yesterdays paper that in 2009, Washington is going to California emissions. If they try to make me refit the bike, I'm moving.
-WD
You ARE out of the loop....
It isn't that just Washington is going to CA emissions. ALL of the US is going to CA emissions standards by 2006. This only concerns NEW motorcycles for sale in the US, and there is no grandfathering, retrofit or anything. So no need to move.
All of this started a few years ago and is the result of new EPA guidelines that were approved early this year. If you go to the AMA website you can find all the info you want. And it gets better....there is another set of standards that not only go into effect for CA, but will become mandatory in the other 49 states in either 2008 or 2010.
It all started with an EPA proposal to apply emissions standards to small gasoline engines, and somewhere they managed to add motorcycles since popularity has increased so much...yep, government at its best. Didn't you all see it on the nightly news? No? Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! There was little or no publicity.
I wrote the EPA and argued back and forth with some stuffed shirt in several emails. I also wrote a few congressmen back in 2003, but never heard anything back. The AMA was very involved and did have a good influence on the outcome.