State Moves To Rid The Road Of Older Cars

In an effort to help clean up the air in Texas, the state is trying to get some of the older cars off the road. In 1996, cars began to be equipped with more sophisticated equipment to meet cleaner air standards, but many pre-1996 cars are still on the road. Jim Marston, regional director of Environmental Defense, says these older cars cause as much as 10 times the pollution of newer cars.

The problem is that many of these cars are owned by low-income families that cannot afford to replace them. So the state has instituted a program to help these families replace these cars with newer and cleaner cars.

By the end of the year, the state will begin to issue vouchers of $3000 that the families could use as a down-payment on a new car (or a car less than three years old). If they buy a hybrid vehicle, the voucher goes up to $3500. The program will help drivers in 16 counties around Dallas, Houston and Austin.

These 16 counties are Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson. To qualify for the voucher, the income for a family of four must be less than $61,000.

Finally, the state is doing something that might actually have an effect on air quality around Texas urban areas. Now if they would make the energy companies and heavy industries clean up their acts, you might be able to breate again in the metropolitan areas.

But that's probably asking too much of our Republican-controlled state government. After all, these industry and energy polluters provide a lot of campaign cash.

I guess we should just be thankful they did anything at all.