HBA-MPA C.S.H.B. 1672 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1672 By: Hill Transportation 4444/8/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, exclusive authorization for disposal of motor vehicles is provided to motor vehicle demolishers. Cities are allowed to dispose of motor vehicles by sending them to a demolisher only if the abandoned motor vehicle is totally inoperable. If a city has possession of an abandoned vehicle which does not meet qualified emission standards, but is classified as operable under the law, the city must sell it at auction. Selling high emission vehicles at auction runs the risk of putting these vehicles back on the street, and thus worsening urban air quality. According to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, 10 percent of the vehicles currently running cause 50 percent of vehicle-produced pollution. The majority of these high pollution vehicles are 1979 and older models that do not have efficient combustion technologies developed since 1985. In fact, 1970-1979 model vehicles emit 5.6-10.7 more grams/mile of Volatile Organic Compounds emissions than 1985-1987 model vehicles. Even vehicles manufactured after 1979 can cause significant air pollution from emission systems that have failed. One way to significantly decrease vehicle pollution and increase air quality is to reduce the number of high emission vehicles running on Texas roads. C.S.H.B. 1672 grants municipalities the authority to have abandoned motor vehicles that are more than eight years old and do not meet current emissions standards demolished. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 683.051, Transportation Code, to authorize a person to apply to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for authority to dispose of a motor vehicle to a demolisher if the abandoned vehicle does not comply with all applicable air pollution emissions control related requirements including a vehicle inspection certificate affixed to the vehicle windshield, or the vehicle emissions inspection and maintenance requirements under Chapter 548 (Compulsory Inspection of Vehicles), Transportation Code. SECTION 2. Amends Section 683.054(b), Transportation Code, to make conforming and nonsubstantive changes. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1672 differs from the original bill in SECTION 1 by reinstating existing Section 683.052(2)(A)(iii), Transportation Code, allowing a person to apply to TxDOT for authority to dispose of a vehicle that has no motor or is otherwise totally inoperable. The substitute also adds the word "or" so that either noncompliance with emissions standards as proposed in the original bill, or inoperability are sufficient standards to justify disposal.