Source: San Jose Mercury News, 6/25/09
As part of its longstanding program to get older, dirty vehicles off the road, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) has announced that it will now pay $1,000 for any car, pickup truck or SUV with a 1989 model year or older.
The change increases the previous cash payback by $350, which until now was only available for cars made in 1987 or earlier. To be eligible for the voluntary buyback program, vehicles must be running and registered in Santa Clara, San Mateo, the Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa or San Francisco counties.
Automobiles represent one of the largest sources of pollution in the Bay Area. In particular, older cars can emit up to 20 times the pollution of newer cars because they lack modern computer systems, catalytic converters and other emissions-reducing equipment.
As a result, the air district has found that buying and crushing old, high-emitting cars is one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to reduce smog. Since the program was launched in 1996, the air district has permanently removed 42,810 vehicles from the road. Over the last two years, the program eliminated 251 ton of nitrogen oxides, an amount that is greater than all the nitrogen oxides produced by Bay Area oil refineries during the same time period.
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