At the request of Governor Theodore Kulongoski, the Oregon Speaker of the House has introduced legislation (H.B. 2186) to prohibit the sale and distribution of aftermarket motor vehicle parts if alternatives are available that “decrease greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.” The bill is primarily focused on aftermarket tires and would authorize the Environmental Quality Commission to implement enforcement regulations, likely based on a rolling resistance calculation.
H.B. 2186 would regulate vehicle fuel economy, an authority reserved to the federal government.
H.B. 2186 could ban tires that may have improved performance, handling or appearance features, based solely on a rolling resistance rating. In addition, this program could easily distract consumers from focusing on more important safety issues such as tire inflation and overloading of vehicles.
H.B. 2186 would force consumers to purchase only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) tires because the program essentially exempts OEM-selected tires and unfairly implies that they are superior to aftermarket products.
H.B. 2186 could prohibit aftermarket parts designed to either personalize or optimize specific vehicle performance attributes including handling, towing, suspension, fuel economy, etc.
H.B. 2186 provides broad authority to government regulators and could limit a range of aftermarket parts currently available to consumers based on the subjective determination of government regulators.
Wow, first though that comes to mind is the opening scene to “Thunderbolt”, the movie with Jackie Chan driving an Evo and 3000GT VR4, where the cops are pulling everyone over and impounding anything with aftermarket stuff on it!
How is a lowering suspension creating a bad environment? Or how is a better handling tire creating a bad environment? Tires are tires, they are all made of the same basic compound but have different tread patterns, ply’s, etc. which give it it’s handling characteristics.
Yeah I remember that. That actually tried to ban the sale of Corvette’s, Mustang’s, Porsche’s, Ferrari’s, etc. Pathetic that people waste their time on these things :Idiots
Also a better handling tire can increase fuel economy, if you can take a corner faster on one set of tires as opposed to another set then you wont have to use as much gas to get back up to speed.