Jay Leno’s Law Gains Support

Welcome once again to Leato's law. Here's Steve Leato. — Owning and driving a vehicle in California is an expensive process. Among other things, they have smog checks that you've got to take your vehicle in to get the tailpipe tested to make sure you're not smogging up the air too much. And other states will occasionally have similar things, but it depends what state you're in. Michigan briefly had those for a couple counties, not the whole state, but some certain counties, and then they got rid of that and moved on. But in California, there's been a push over the last couple years to change the law so that vehicles of a certain age don't need to be smog checked anymore. They get an exemption. And the law was nicknamed Leno's law a while back as they're trying to work this through the process. And the good news is they have officially named it Leno's law. Uh but it's not a law yet. It is a proposed law. Okay? And I don't like to talk a lot about proposed laws because they can still get amended heavily and it might not pass, but it looks like everybody's finally getting on board with Leno's law. So, I'm going to talk about it now. Emtt White for roadtrack. com, an organization I used to write for. Full disclosure, FIA leadership backs Leno's law, classic car emissions exemption rule in California. So, it's another organization getting behind this. As California legislators wonder about new emission exemptions for classic cars, both grassroots organizations and political power players are throwing their weight behind California Senate Bill 1392, also known as Leno's Law, after the automotive enthusiast and comedian who has pushed for the me measure because quite frankly, he's probably going to be the one who's got the most cars that get exempted. He's got a couple cars. Uh, Road and Track first reported on Leno's law back in 2025 when California state senator introduced and unsuccessfully attempted to pass the initial iteration of the classic car smog exemption. This time, a senator joined uh with the politician and celebrity advocate Jay Leno in the effort to provide emissions testing exemptions for classic vehicles on a rolling basis starting with 1981. Uh, and going back, the Federation International D automobile, which is the FIA, the International Governing Body for Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship, and the World Rally Championship has weighed in. The uh, president says California has long been recognized as a leader in environmental policy and a trends setter in automotive culture. SB 1392 strikes a thoughtful and balanced compromise by respecting air quality goals while protecting an essential element of California's cultural and economic fabric. It is intentionally bounded, does not create a broad rolling exemption, and creates only an optional pathway for qualifying collector vehicles. It ensures that rare and historic vehicles, some of which are displayed in worldrenowned California museums and celebrated by enthusiasts around the world can be preserved without undue regulatory burden. It shouldn't be particularly surprising that the FIA historical commission is in favor of keeping more classic cars on the road. The non-sporting wing of the motorsport organizing body focuses on securing the future of our motoring heritage and preserving historic vehicles place on the roads of tomorrow. However, uh that man's voice adds legitimate backing from the globalized behemoth behind some of racing's biggest international sports. But elections aren't supposed to be swayed by foreign influence or outside agitators. Local grassroots support can be as powerful as high dollar donors and the people have spoken in California. The Golden State birthed and cultivated the strongest low rider culture in the country and the faction is now publicly endorsing the measure. The Specialty Equipment Market Association, SEMA, says over 1,700 letters of support for Leno's law have been submitted by the low rider community. Low riders and classics are built with pride, shown with purpose, and driven for the community. Leno's law is about protecting those who keep these cars alive. The builders, the painters, the upholsterers, the chrome shops, and the clubs that put in the work year round. SB 1392 keeps our culture on the road and gives the next generation a fair shot at preserving the rides they love, said the organizer of that letter campaign. And by the way, if you ever looked at the mechanical underpinnings of a low rider, it can be fascinating uh what's going on back there, what's making the car jump and hop and stuff. SEMA has been instrumental in organizing support for the emissions exemption and the bill actually has a chance at passing this time. Sema's senior director for state government affairs uh told road track earlier this year that the primary hangup last year was potential taxpayer cost, a problem solved by simplifying certain administrative functions in the new bill. 1392 was passed by the California state senate earlier this month and then referred to the state assembly. The bill

is currently under review by the California State Assembly Committee on Transportation. Now, a couple things I got to tell you. Uh Jay Leno, uh people are talking about this as something that would really help him out because he's got quite a few cars, quite a few. And I've seen his car collection, so firsthand knowledge. But um I went and looked at the bill as currently proposed and it is officially called the bill is this act shall be known and may be cited as J. Leno's law. And I thought, "Wow, I I remember looking at the law previously and don't remember seeing that. " And you can look at the legislative history of a bill as it works its way through the assembly or legislature, whatever you got. And um I noticed that it was a recent change to title it Jay Leno's law. I'm assuming somewhere along the line somebody approached Jay and said, "Hey, Jay, people keep calling this Jay Leno's law because they know that he was number one, I think he said he was in favor of it, but number two, you got a lot of old cars. " And I'm sure he said, "Yeah, sure. If you want to go ahead and call it that, knock yourself out. " You know, it's it's not a bad law to have named after you. And I've never had a law named after me. But I got to tell you, Jay Leno owns a Chrysler Turbine car. And so that'd be that car right there. But he's got a real one uh full size. You can get inside of it. I've been driven it. And um Jay actually wrote the forward to a book I wrote about the Chrysler Turbine car, new Ford by Jay Leno, cuz this is the expanded edition. Uh but he wrote the forward to the original version also. And I'm curious. I never I I never thought to ask him that when that car got emission tested. I'm curious to know what was coming out the tailpipe. Although it was burning jet fuel. So, but I have a sneaky feeling because remember that car could run on anything. And if you're running it on peanut oil, I wonder what the tailpipe emissions would have read because my understanding is, and it's been a long time since we had to do this in Michigan, but they put that thing in the tailpipe and it measures, it's only looking for certain things, c certain, you know, certain chemicals and it'll say this is how much you got of this, here's how much, and there's like three or four that they're looking for. And I'm curious to know if it had kind, you know, wacky readings uh from that kind of thing, but I don't know. So, we'll see. But again, this is simply a proposed bill. The proposed bill could get modified in the assembly and sent back to Senate. It could get adopted as is or it could die there, as they say. So, it's possible this will not come to fruition. It's one of the reasons I don't like talking about proposed legislation, but it looks like there are a lot of people behind this now. And it even appears that Jay Leno has said, "Sure, if you want to name it after me, go right ahead. " So if if the bill got passed as currently drafted, it starts by saying the people of the state of California do enact as follows. That's the bill. And then the law would say section one, this act shall be known and may be cited as Jay Leno's law. And you know something, I've written a few books. I've accomplished a few things in my life. And now I've added to the list of things I'd really like to see happen someday. I'd like to see a law entitled Steve Leto's law, but number one, it cause confusion with the name of this show, but number two, I'm not sure what that law would be. Perhaps some kind of amendments to the Michigan Lemon Law or something, but we'll see. So, there you go. But the FIA leadership has jumped on board along with everybody else backing Leno's law, which is the classic car emissions exemption rule in California. And we're talking about cars that are as old as 1981 and then older. And so, you know, it's kind of sad because I look at a 1981 model and go, that's it's not an antique. Then I realized, oh, it actually is getting more than a couple decades old, isn't it? Yeah, it's getting old. Questions or comments, put them below. Let's talk to you later. Bye-bye. — Thank you for watching Leato's Law. Everything flows and nothing abides.