Cleaner cars, amended

The Legislature’s Natural Resource Committee recently put together a solid pilot program that helps get cleaner cars on the road and dirtier ones off it. It is a worthy proposal that deserves the full support of lawmakers.

LD 2182 began as a plan to offer rebates for the purchase of low-polluting vehicles. It ran into trouble because lawmakers sensed, accurately, that while the fees to fund the rebates would be paid by all drivers, the people who would be receiving the rebates probably hadn’t started out owning a clunker and may often include those wealthy enough to pick up an electric vehicle as a second car. The plan might have cut the levels of carbon monoxide or nitrogen oxide in Maine, but it was an expensive way to do it.

The committee’s alternative is better targeted at the source of much of the problem: the clunker, the car at least 13 years old that produces far more pollution per mile than the new low-emission vehicles being offered by every major car and light-truck manufacturer. Maine has one of the oldest auto fleets in the country, so there are plenty out there that could be taken off the road. But rather than a surcharge on a car’s excise tax, as in the original plan, the committee now wants to take the $500,000 needed for the project from the General Fund.

The idea works like this: You’re driving around in your ’83 Sootmobile, wondering how long the duct tape will keep the transmission from scraping the pavement and whether you should go for a newer vehicle or just another roll of duct tape, when you hear about the rebate. You check out the requirements to see if you meet the criteria — the vehicle is an ’87 model or older, you drive it at least 5,000 miles a year, you can show that you’ve owned it for two years or more and you’re willing to have it scrapped. You buy a low-polluting vehicle from ’96 or newer and send all this information to the Finance Authority of Maine. In return, you get a check for between $1,000 and $2,000, depending on the kind of Sootmobile you’ve had scrapped.

The proposal requires a bit of paperwork, but the payback is substantial, both to the car owner and the public. Lawmakers are to be commended for taking a plan they could have simply derided and making it work. Now it is up to the full Legislature to support the kind of incentives it has approved for stationary sources. Getting the most-polluting cars off the road means cleaner air for everyone.