Apparently my old home state of Washington is ending vehicle emissions tests in 2020.
When I lived in Washington the county I lived in, Skagit, did not require one have ones vehicle tested for emissions each year before being allowed to continue to drive legally.
If I remember right only the heavily populated counties in Washington required vehicles getting tested for emissions at the point in time when I still lived in the state. That would be counties like King, Snohomish, Pierce and Spokane. For all I know testing for vehicle emissions had spread to every county, but I suspect not.
When I was first in Texas and learned I needed to get something called a vehicle emissions test as part of a vehicle registration I remember thinking to myself what fresh Texas hell is this? Likely finding out about this fresh Texas hell soon after being introduced to the bizarre concept of dry, damp and wet areas of Texas designating where and what type alcohol could be sold, and where it could be sold and when such could be sold.
Regarding the dry, damp and wet thing I remember being amazed that a remnant of something long gone in most of the rest of America, that being Prohibition, was not long gone in Texas. Eventually I learned other areas of the South also had not totally ended Prohibition, to various degrees.
I long ago gave up trying to understand why the South, and Texas, seems to lag behind the rest of America in so many ways.
I wonder how long after areas of America, such as the west coast states, began trying to combat air pollution by trying to reduce vehicle caused pollution by making vehicles meet some sort of emissions standard, that states like Texas began requiring vehicles reduce emissions to be allowed on the state's roads.
And now one of the west coast states is apparently realizing vehicle emissions testing is no longer vitally needed in order to reduce pollution. That and likely it was realized that forcing vehicle owners to go through this annual nuisance, was just that, an annoying nuisance, the reason of which had been obviated by greatly improved vehicle emissions greatly reducing air pollution.
I remember the first time I was in Los Angeles, at 13 years old, being shocked to see and have my eyes stung by smog for the first time. Such had not yet come to the Pacific Northwest, other than smoke from forest fires.
At 13 years old, and many visits to Southern California in the years that followed, I did not realize that there was a range of mountains to the east of Los Angeles, because the air pollution blocked seeing the San Gabriel Mountains. I remember going to Disneyland on Christmas of 1994 and seeing those mountains for the first time, hovering in the distance like the Cascade Mountain foothills did in my home zone of Western Washington.
Eventually smog did come to Western Washington, at times blocking being able to see the mountains to the north, south, east and west. Sometimes a pink haze hovered over Puget Sound when looking north towards Canada.
And now, apparently the Washington air pollution has improved enough, or vehicle emissions have improved enough, or a combo of both, that vehicle emissions testing is ending in Washington in 2020.
I do not think vehicle emissions testing will be ending any time soon in Texas, because I have been in Texas for around 20 years and I have yet to see the air clear enough to see any mountain range, no matter what direction I look.
And, I have heard nothing about any plan to finally end all aspects of Prohibition in Texas. Well, except, I did read recently that there is some effort to end the Texas Blue Laws which prohibit some alcohol type selling on Sundays....
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