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Kulongoski Proposes Outlawing After-Market Car Parts

It seems that the State of Oregon just can’t stay out of people’s cars. A little over a month ago, we reported on how Governor Kulongoski has been floating the idea of installing tracking devices in every automobile and taxing drivers by the mile because increased fuel economy standards were starting to cut into gax tax revenues.

Sadly, the governor has even more great ideas about how Oregonians should be allowed to use their own property. H.B. 2186, introduced at the behest of Kulongoski aims to “to prohibit the sale and distribution of aftermarket motor vehicle parts if alternatives are available that “decrease greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.”

It appears that the focus of the legislation is aftermarket vanity tires that, while they might make your low-rider lower or boost your jacked-up pickup that much higher off the ground, might also cause a mileage hit. The law is almost certain to cover other auto parts that I’m just not car-savvy enough to know about, too.

The bill is sure to find favor with “green-at-any-cost” types, but is certain to strike… well… pretty much everyone else as yet more pointless regulation that accomplishes absolutely nothing aside from further increasing state control over what private citizens can and cannot do with their own property within the State of Oregon and encouraging a thriving after-market auto parts industry just on the other side of Oregon’s borders.

So much for “economic stimulus.”

As the guys over at Autoblog put it, “Putting our legislators in charge of what equipment should be fitted to our cars doesn’t strike us as the brightest idea.” Expand that to “in charge of anything at all” and I’m inclined to agree.

(H/T Instapundit)

  1. […] in case you had any faith left in your state government, they’ve gone and done it again. House Bill 3008 aims to force […]

  2. nike urbanism duk says:

    Whether it is ospiggg telling us how to live and crying chicken little or the Algorian cult members and their top-down government environmental preachers it is all based on junk science and subtle consensus brainwashing tricks . They all should be sent to Guantanomo. We need to keep that place open for them. Use your carbon footprint to kick their ass. If you don’t the food police and GPS car greenies will be knocking on your door soon…..at 2 a.m. The framed argument is that the people are doing something wrong and we have to sit down and listen to the governments lessons about how we can change our ways…….or burn alive on a scorched planet. The American people are not the problem, it is the government and their “partners” like ospiggg and a shoe company I will not mention. The global whiners need a gag order to silence their hysteria.

  3. Vincent says:

    Sure. There’s nothing wrong with reducing environmental impact, if it can be managed in a sane way. Passing heavy-handed legislation that bans things like special tires is, however, asinine and sadly typical of the bureaucratic mindset.

  4. B says:

    I’m all about going green, but making things illegal and holding individuals responsible for it is overstepping. It’d be a lot better if they provided incentives for buying items that help your car reduce emissions. That sounds like something an 8 year old would come up with if he was asked “If you were made king, what rules would you make?”

    Ridiculous.

  5. nike urbanism duk says:

    Kulongoski is a greenhouse-gasbag.

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