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Stricter Laws Essay

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Every year passenger vehicles contribute a large portion of the carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides in our air, although there are laws and regulations set to help reduce these pollutants I believe stricter laws and regulations should be enacted to further reduce green house gas emissions produced by vehicles in order to protect our environment and slow the process of global warming. Some of the strictest regulations in relevance to green house gas emissions (GHG) in the United States are found in California. This is because California is the second highest GHG emitting state in the nation behind Texas, however California has 30 percent more citizens and 40 percent lower land mass than Texas making California significantly denser …show more content…

DMV.org lists the process in which emissions are regulated in these areas. State to state the emissions testing procedures are generally conducted identically. A tailpipe emissions test is performed on vehicles with a 1995 or older model year. This involves inserting a probe into the tailpipe to measure the amount of pollutants in the car's emissions. Vehicles with a 1996 or newer model year will have an emissions test through an On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) system. This style of smog check involves a data exchange between the car's computer and the technician's computer and shows if emissions systems are working correctly. The pollutants that are being measured in both tests are: carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrocarbons (HC), oxygen (O2), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Some may argue that the emissions regulations that are in place are good enough. However when we compare Californias strict emissions regulations to other states we quickly find flaws in the other states systems. For example in Connecticut only a Catalytic-converter (a piece of a vehicles exhaust system) is required in order to pass emissions. No other testing is conducted other than a slight glance at the under side of the car to see if indeed the Catalytic converter is there. Though a catalytic converters function on a

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