Big Brother is Watching
Here's the spin... ... ... No more waiting in line at DEQ! YEAH!
According to our friends at KPTV, starting next year, Oregon DEQ will introduce self-service kiosks and a new dashboard devise. The devise monitors your cars emissions system and relays that information to the state. If your car is polluting, you will receive an email and postcard from the state telling you to get your car fixed. You then have 45 days in which to get your car repaired.
Gosh that's exciting news!
There was no mention whether or not that’s going to be a voluntary program. They also didn’t mention if the dashboard devise was going to just be in new cars that came with the devise neatly mounted like some nice looking high tech unit in your dash or they were going to require you to mount it next to your dashboard Jesus and have it stick out like a sore thumb. Don't ask! Of course YOU have to pay for it. What? did you think this was New Orleans?
The deal is, if your car is a 1996 or newer, it already monitors all of that in a very efficient manner. By federal law, all vehicles in this country are equipped with a system affectionately called O.B.D. II or On-board Diagnostics second generation.
If there is a problem with your car’s emission system, you’ll know it. A malfunction indicator light comes on that says something like, “Service Engine Soon” or “Check Engine” (it varies by manufacturer) and you know there’s a problem. You don’t need a State of Oregon approved dashboard devise installed. You also don’t need a threatening email or postcard from the state telling you to get your car fixed.
This is just another example of the State of Oregon spending YOUR money on redundant systems and processes that are already being handled well by the private sector.
It has always been my position that the State of Oregon’s vehicle emission testing program was both a ‘jobs’ program and a way to extort more tax money from Oregon drivers without calling it a tax, ‘it’s a fee.’
The effectiveness of the program is marginal at best and certainly does not justify its existence. Sounds to me like Steady Teddy and the State of Vera just want to make life as difficult for hard working Oregonians as possible by adding this twist to the emissions program as well as trying to adopt California like emission standards.
But wait, there’s more! I believe this is another thorn in the side of Oregon drivers by the folks in Vera World to get us out of our cars and onto one of the liberal’s favorite pork projects, MAX.
They know when modern day emission control devises fail, it is most often a very expensive repair. If you’re driving a 10-year-old (or older) car, chances are you can’t just dip into your pocket and pull out the cash to do a $1500.00 or $2000.00 repair without sweating a bit. Otherwise, you’d probably be driving a newer car. And, a lot of times putting that kind of money into a 10-year-old car just isn’t smart. So there you are, you can’t fix the car you own and you can’t afford to buy a new one and a used car could have as many problems as the one you have now. What do you do? Ride MAX.
“Welcome aboard ladies and gentlemen! While riding MAX today, we’ll remove your brain and do our best to reprogram it to think that our idea of mass transit is the ‘way-to-go!’ And now that we’ve made it just too damn expensive for you to drive your own car, we’re sure you won’t mind pumping more money into MAX and the Tri-Met system. Enjoy the very long, tedious and potentially life threatening ride.
According to our friends at KPTV, starting next year, Oregon DEQ will introduce self-service kiosks and a new dashboard devise. The devise monitors your cars emissions system and relays that information to the state. If your car is polluting, you will receive an email and postcard from the state telling you to get your car fixed. You then have 45 days in which to get your car repaired.
Gosh that's exciting news!
There was no mention whether or not that’s going to be a voluntary program. They also didn’t mention if the dashboard devise was going to just be in new cars that came with the devise neatly mounted like some nice looking high tech unit in your dash or they were going to require you to mount it next to your dashboard Jesus and have it stick out like a sore thumb. Don't ask! Of course YOU have to pay for it. What? did you think this was New Orleans?
The deal is, if your car is a 1996 or newer, it already monitors all of that in a very efficient manner. By federal law, all vehicles in this country are equipped with a system affectionately called O.B.D. II or On-board Diagnostics second generation.
If there is a problem with your car’s emission system, you’ll know it. A malfunction indicator light comes on that says something like, “Service Engine Soon” or “Check Engine” (it varies by manufacturer) and you know there’s a problem. You don’t need a State of Oregon approved dashboard devise installed. You also don’t need a threatening email or postcard from the state telling you to get your car fixed.
This is just another example of the State of Oregon spending YOUR money on redundant systems and processes that are already being handled well by the private sector.
It has always been my position that the State of Oregon’s vehicle emission testing program was both a ‘jobs’ program and a way to extort more tax money from Oregon drivers without calling it a tax, ‘it’s a fee.’
The effectiveness of the program is marginal at best and certainly does not justify its existence. Sounds to me like Steady Teddy and the State of Vera just want to make life as difficult for hard working Oregonians as possible by adding this twist to the emissions program as well as trying to adopt California like emission standards.
But wait, there’s more! I believe this is another thorn in the side of Oregon drivers by the folks in Vera World to get us out of our cars and onto one of the liberal’s favorite pork projects, MAX.
They know when modern day emission control devises fail, it is most often a very expensive repair. If you’re driving a 10-year-old (or older) car, chances are you can’t just dip into your pocket and pull out the cash to do a $1500.00 or $2000.00 repair without sweating a bit. Otherwise, you’d probably be driving a newer car. And, a lot of times putting that kind of money into a 10-year-old car just isn’t smart. So there you are, you can’t fix the car you own and you can’t afford to buy a new one and a used car could have as many problems as the one you have now. What do you do? Ride MAX.
“Welcome aboard ladies and gentlemen! While riding MAX today, we’ll remove your brain and do our best to reprogram it to think that our idea of mass transit is the ‘way-to-go!’ And now that we’ve made it just too damn expensive for you to drive your own car, we’re sure you won’t mind pumping more money into MAX and the Tri-Met system. Enjoy the very long, tedious and potentially life threatening ride.
1 comment:
So went the Oregon Lottery, so goes the DEQ.
Its time to expand.
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