Report to the General Assembly (Published)

Document Title

Desirability and Feasibility of Replacement of Older Motor Vehicles or Early Motor Vehicle Retirement Programs

Author

Department of Motor Vehicles; Department of Air Pollution Control

Enabling Authority

HJR 144 (1992)

Executive Summary

The 1992 General Assembly requested a study of the desirability of providing incentives for the accelerated replacement of older motor vehicles. The Vehicle Scrappage Advisory Committee was formed, with representatives form the Departments of Air Pollution Control and Motor Vehicles, as well as interested parties from private industries. The Vehicle Scrappage Advisory Committee focused on four areas.

* Identification of the motor vehicle population that is likely to be responsible for a
disproportionate share of Virginia's vehicle air pollution.
* Estimates for the cost of removing air pollution attributable to these vehicles.
* Development of a cost analysis to provide a form of "bounty" or incentive to owners to
replace these vehicles.
* Development of recommendations for creating and implementing a proposed early
motor vehicle retirement program in Virginia.

The work of the Advisory Committee has led them to recommend that a pilot program be conducted in the Northern Virginia area. It would be targeted at those localities subject to vehicle emission inspection and maintenance (I&M) for a period of three years.

Candidate vehicles would include those potentially eligible for I&M waivers and willing owners of pre-1981 vehicles as funds allow.

Information on several potential funding sources has been provided, but no one source has been recommended. Any funding source should allow for the $700,000 to$800,000
needed for the retirement of each 1000 vehicles, with a "bounty" of $700 offered to the owners who retire their vehicles under this program.

It is estimated that 80-90 tons of ozone-forming pollution would be removed, over a three-year period, if at least 1,000 vehicles are retired. EPA quidelines limit the life span of these reductions to three years due to the replacement of scrapped vehicles by other vehicles which are usually driven more.

Expansion of the program could be based on funding and interest to include other I&M or nonattainment areas in the state or even statewide implementation.