anti-pollution when did it start

dodge freak said
Yeah Jimmy was an asshole but he wanted better fuel mpg from cars to save energy, if we would had listen we might not being spending so much money now just to fuel our cars.

hummers and suv's in such large numbers would had never happen, $5 a gallon gas might not have happen either or if it did it would not have been felt so hard.

Now we might get 54 mpg cars in ten years to try to make up for lost time, that stinks. Even if we don;t buy them many other people will and the roads will soon be clogged up with smart cars and volts, taking away from the stop lights like a moped does. Unless those red lights are reduced the time they are red, traffic is going to move slower yet come 10 years from now. We might get all day rush hour jam ups. God for bid hitting one of those smart cars with an old tank of a car

The fact that cars used more fuel in the earlier days has nothing at all to do with what we pay for fuel today. Nothing. The federal government makes more money from every gallon of gasoline sold then the oil company does.
There is no fuel shortage; there's plenty of fuel. The government's taxes, and futures traders are what make a gallon of gas cost so much today.

Joe Dokes said
There are a number of comments in this thread that confuse a number of different environmental regulations.

First off all smog laws that began in the mid to late sixties were concerned only with the three major components of smog. These were hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. These three components made up a lions share of smog in most urban areas.

While the early restrictions were simple and over time became more and more complex. For a long time they severely restricted the performance potential of engines, they did have the effect of dramatically cleaner air. For example, when I was a kid growing up in the L.A. area we often couldn't go outside for recess because of "smog alerts." Essentially the air was so polluted that if you exercised and took a deep breath your lungs would physically hurt. Today, the air in the Los Angeles basin, is cleaner than it has been since the end of WWII. Most of the time when I was a kid you couldn't even see the mountains, after it rained and the air was temporarily clean we'd comment, "Look the mountains are out." Yet the number of cars and miles driven has increased radically.

Second, cars were dealt a double whammy in the 1970s. First the smog laws then the fact that the oil companies took nearly ten points of octane out of the fuel in the early 70s. This lead to about a 2 point reduction in compression ratio. This reduction in octane took 20 Horsepower right off the top of any performance engine.

Finally, auto companies began to rate engines with net horsepower instead of gross horsepower. This meant that motors appeared to put out about 40 HP less as they now were tested while spinning the accessories like the alternator, waterpump and power steering pump.

These factors all lead to a nadir in automotive development where the 1980 Corvette only put out 150 HP. Yet, since 1980 engineers have learned how to make HP engines within the constraints of smog laws. The result, today's cars blow away anything built in the 60s.

So smog laws have helped to make the air we breath a lot cleaner. By the way, don't blame Carter for them. The EPA was started under Nixon, and virtually all the regulations for things like auto smog laws were started under Nixon or even earlier.

Regards,

Joe Dokes

I didn't blame Carter for smog laws, I was simply pointing out the fact that since his claim that we will all freeze to death by the year 2000 if we didn't do something radical never came true, the greenies have gone from crying about global cooling to crying about global warming. Since that didn't work, they now cry about global "climate change". Never once did any of them ever thing that this cycle might just be a natural part of the envrionment.
By the way, Corvette in 1980, the Cali 305 made 180HP, the base 49 state engine made 185HP and the optional L82 made 220HP. :D

I appreciate your experience as a Cali resident, to your input about smog conditions in Cali in the 70's. That is something that us on the east coast never experienced.
Merry Christmas.

George