BILL NUMBER: SB 1146	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Burton
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Polanco)
   (Coauthor: Senator Karnette)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Baugh, Cardoza, and Granlund)

                        FEBRUARY 26, 1999

   An act to amend Section 43104 of, and to add Sections 39027.3 and
43105.5 to, the Health and Safety Code, and to amend Section 27156 of
the Vehicle Code, relating to air pollution.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1146, as introduced, Burton.  Motor vehicles: pollution control
devices.
   (1) Existing law authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt
and implement emission standards for new motor vehicles to control
emissions from those vehicles.
   This bill would require a motor vehicle manufacturer to provide,
with respect to any motor vehicle and motor vehicle engine sold,
specified information and tools to persons engaged in the business of
service, repair, manufacture, or remanufacture of emissions-related
motor vehicle parts, as defined.  The bill would require the state
board to assemble a panel of arbitrators to resolve individual
disputes regarding the availability and cost of the information and
tools.
   The bill would provide that any information required to be
provided by the bill that is confidential, proprietary, or trade
secret information, shall be safeguarded, as specified, and would
make it a crime to willfully obtain information in violation of this
provision.  By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
  (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  yes.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) The growing practice of preventing qualified automotive repair
technicians and aftermarket parts manufacturers from repairing
vehicles equipped with onboard diagnostic computers is contrary to
the public interest.
   (b) This practice, if left unchecked, may adversely effect
California's highly mobile economy that depends heavily on 26 million
vehicles, the largest fleet of registered vehicles in the United
States.
   (c) The withholding of service information by vehicle
manufacturers from qualified automotive repair technicians may result
in improper mechanical and electrical operation of these vehicles
and can endanger the individual health, safety, and welfare of
California's 32 million residents.
   (d) The withholding of technologically advanced tool and part
manufacturing information repair technicians could result in a
drastic increase in the approximately thirteen billion dollars
($13,000,000,000) currently spent on professional automotive repair
services and the two billion six hundred million dollars
($2,600,000,000) currently spent by Californians on parts and
accessories each year to maintain their vehicles.
   (e) This increased cost to California consumers may be directed to
businesses outside of the state or to California businesses whose
parent company is located in another state or country.  This would
have an adverse effect on the automotive repair industry in
California that employs approximately 300,000 workers.
   (f) In order to properly serve California's consumers, today's
independent automotive technician must be able to work easily with
all automotive computer systems, including, but not limited to,
onboard diagnostic systems, and be able to perform necessary
diagnostics, repairs, and reprogramming functions and provide
competitively priced replacement parts.
   (g) An estimated 34,000 independent automotive repair shops and
1,200 new car dealerships each year file business applications and
pay annual fees to the Bureau of Automotive Repair for an automotive
repair dealer registration.  Independent automotive repair small
businesses constitute the vast majority, approximately 97 percent, of
the facilities that Californians have come to rely on for service,
while the new car dealerships represent only a small minority,
approximately 3 percent.
   (h) Existing law authorizes the State Air Resources Board to adopt
and implement emission standards for new motor vehicles to control
mobile emissions.  In the past several years, the automobile
manufacturers have sought compliance with these standards in a manner
that favors the new car dealerships and inadvertently denies
independent automotive repair facilities access to necessary repair
information, tools, and competitively priced replacement parts.
   (i) The effectiveness of California's vehicle inspection and
maintenance program in reducing 112 tons of harmful emissions per day
from onroad vehicles relies entirely upon the proper inspection,
maintenance, diagnosis, and repair of our state's 26 million vehicles
by independent automotive repair technicians.
   (j) It is in the interest of the California consumer that all
members of the automotive repair industry have necessary access to
diagnostic and repair information, tools, and replacement parts
thereby enabling them to provide competent and competitive service to
the state's 26 million vehicles and their owners.
  SEC. 2.  Section 39027.3 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   39027.3.  "Emissions-related motor vehicle part" means any
automotive part that affects or that may affect emissions from a
motor vehicle, including replacement parts, consolidated parts,
rebuilt parts, remanufactured parts, add-on parts, modified parts,
and specialty parts.
  SEC. 3.  Section 43104 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
   43104.  For the certification of new motor vehicles or new motor
vehicle engines, the state board shall adopt, by regulation, test
procedures  and any other procedures necessary  to determine
 whether such   the following:
   (a) Whether the  vehicles or engines are in compliance with
the emission standards established pursuant to Section 43101.  The
state board shall base its test procedures on federal test procedures
or on driving patterns typical in the urban areas of California.

   (b) Whether a manufacturer is in compliance with Section 43105.5.

  SEC. 4.  Section 43105.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   43105.5.  (a) For any motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine sold,
the manufacturer shall provide to a person engaged in the business of
service, repair, manufacture, or remanufacture of emissions-related
motor vehicle parts, the information and tools necessary to service
and repair the vehicle or engine, or to design, manufacture,
remanufacture, test, and install an emissions-related motor vehicle
part.  The information shall include enhanced diagnostic information,
reprogramming capability, and the operating parameters and
specifications within which an emissions-related motor vehicle part
must function so as not to activate any code or device designed to
alert the vehicle owner or technician of a possible emissions
problem.
   (b) The manufacturer may charge a fee, not to exceed its actual
cost, to provide the information and tools specified in subdivision
(a).
   (c) The motor vehicle manufacturer shall provide the information
required by subdivision (a) in a readily accessible electronic format
that is compatible with computer systems commonly used in the
automotive aftermarket industry and that is accessible without the
need of any decoding information or device.
   (d) Any person engaged in the business of service, repair,
manufacture, or remanufacture of emissions-related motor vehicle
parts is entitled to unrestricted access to, and use of, information
in the onboard computer and the onboard diagnostic system for the
purposes of servicing and repairing a vehicle, and designing,
manufacturing, remanufacturing, testing, and installing an
emissions-related motor vehicle part.  No motor vehicle pollution
control device shall be potted or soldered or in any manner designed
to preclude the access or use mandated by this subdivision.
   (e) Any information required to be disclosed under this section
that the motor vehicle manufacturer can demonstrate is confidential,
proprietary, or trade secret information shall be safeguarded, in a
manner specified by the state board, to prevent disclosure to any
person other than a person described in subdivision (d) of Section
27156 of the Vehicle Code.
   (f) The state board shall assemble a panel of independent and
impartial arbitrators to resolve individual disputes regarding the
availability and cost of the information and tools required to be
provided by a manufacturer pursuant to this section.
  SEC. 5.  Section 27156 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
   27156.  (a) No person shall operate or leave standing upon any
highway any motor vehicle  which   that  is
a gross polluter, as defined in Section 39032.5 of the Health and
Safety Code.
   (b) No person shall operate or leave standing upon any highway any
motor vehicle  which   that  is required
to be equipped with a motor vehicle pollution control device under
Part 5 (commencing with Section 43000) of Division 26 of the Health
and Safety Code or any other certified motor vehicle pollution
control device required by any other state law or any rule or
regulation adopted pursuant to that law, or required to be equipped
with a motor vehicle pollution control device pursuant to the
National Emission Standards Act (42 U.S.C. Secs. 1857f-1 to 1857f-7,
inclusive) and the standards and regulations  adopted pursuant to
that federal act, unless the motor vehicle is equipped with the
required motor vehicle pollution control device  which
  that  is correctly installed and in operating
condition.  No person shall disconnect, modify, or alter any 
such  required  motor vehicle pollution control 
device.
   (c) No person shall install, sell, offer for sale, or advertise
any device, apparatus, or mechanism intended for use with, or as a
part of, any required motor vehicle pollution control device or
system  which   that  alters or modifies
the original design or performance of any  such 
motor vehicle pollution control device or system.
   (d)  No person shall obtain information deemed to be
confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information as provided in
subdivision (e) of Section 43105.5 of the Health and Safety Code
unless the person is engaged in the business of service, repair,
manufacture, or remanufacture of emissions-related motor vehicle
parts or is in the business of providing information or service to a
business that conducts the service, repair, manufacture, or
remanufacture, and has obtained any applicable state license
necessary to lawfully conduct that business.
   (e)  If the court finds that a person has willfully violated
this section, the court shall impose the maximum fine that may be
imposed in the case, and no part of the fine may be suspended.

   (e)  
   (f)  "Willfully," as used in this section, has the same
meaning as the meaning of that word prescribed in Section 7 of the
Penal Code.  
   (f)  
   (g)  No person shall operate a vehicle after notice by a
traffic officer that the vehicle is not equipped with the required
certified motor vehicle pollution control device correctly installed
in operating condition, except as may be necessary to return the
vehicle to the residence or place of business of the owner or driver
or to a garage, until the vehicle has been properly equipped with
 such a   the  device.  
   (g)  
   (h)  The notice to appear issued or complaint filed for a
violation of this section shall require that the person to whom the
notice to appear is issued or against whom the complaint is filed
produce proof of correction pursuant to Section 40150 or proof of
exemption pursuant to Section 4000.1 or 4000.2.  
   (h)  
   (i)  This section shall   does  not
apply to an alteration, modification, or modifying device,
apparatus, or mechanism found by resolution of the State Air
Resources Board to do either of the following:
   (1) Not to reduce the effectiveness of any required motor vehicle
pollution control device.
   (2) To result in emissions from any such modified or altered
vehicle which are at levels which comply with existing state or
federal standards for that model year of the vehicle being modified
or converted.  
   (i)  
   (j)  This section applies to motor vehicles of the United
States or its agencies, to the extent authorized by federal law.
  SEC. 6.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the
only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district
will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction,
eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime
or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government
Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.