Once
again a flawed bill is racing through California’s legislature with
little concern over its dangerous consequences. In this case the stakes
are higher than simply adding more bureaucracy, toothless regulations
or self-inflating decrees – there are significant public safety impacts
that have gone completely unheeded.
SB 346
(Kehoe) aims to reduce the copper content in urban waterways – a noble
goal – but does so by targeting the chemical formulation of brake pads
in our vehicles. Unfortunately, there is no current substitute for
copper in brake pads that carries the same performance quality. So as
our legislators start cramming through bills at the end of session and
playing games with our state’s budget, it’s critical that they don’t
lose sight of the potential safety and brake performance ramifications
of SB 346. As it is currently written, Kehoe’s
bill fails to ensure the availability of safe, commercially viable
brakes for all vehicles on California’s roads.
New technological advances and anti lock brake systems have made brake
failure a rare event among today’s cars and vehicles. The motor vehicle
industry is constantly working to maximize brake safety and ensure the
highest performance standards are upheld. The use of copper in brake
pads is for a specific reason – it is a critical component that reduces
heat and friction, thereby increasing durability and safety and
reducing vibration and noise.
Through the coordinated efforts of motor vehicle engineers,
manufacturers and organizations like the NHTSA (National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration), cars today have the safest and most
advanced features. Even so, someone dies in car crash every 12 minutes
in this country. So the motor vehicle industry is always looking to
improve technology, recognizing that safety is the top priority.
Therefore, it is astounding that legislators who are unfamiliar with
the technical formulations and the intense research and design needs
for new brake innovations would place arbitrary and inflexible
deadlines on the brake reformulation process. But SB 346 as it is currently written would do just that.
The motor vehicle industry understands the need to find a friction
material alternative in order to reduce the amount of copper dust in
our environment. And the industry is committed to pursuing these
alternate brake formulations as quickly as possible. However,
developing new brake pad technology is a meticulous, time-consuming and
enormously sophisticated process. And there is no one-size-fits-all
solution for the vehicles out there. There are roughly 29 million
vehicles on California’s roads, all of which will need new brakes.
Therefore the research, design and testing process must be repeated
thousands of times to ensure that all passenger cars, school buses,
emergency vehicles, heavy-duty commercial trucks, and even classic cars
have brakes that work every time all the time.
Kehoe’s bill does not provide the necessary flexibility to ensure that
safe, commercially viable alternatives will be found for every single
make, model and class of vehicle on our roads. We saw frightening
recalls occur for vehicle problems over the last year – creating
heightened public concern over the safety standards by vehicle parts
and auto manufacturers. There is no justification for pushing through a
bill that rushes the brake pad reformulation process, undermines the
industry’s checks and balances system, and fails to provide an outlet
if there are technical problems with meeting the standards for certain
vehicle types.
We were successful negotiating a solution with legislators in
Washington State that demonstrated a balanced and reasonable policy is
achievable. The legislation there set aggressive copper reduction goals
for brake pads to protect the state’s water quality and salmon
population, and it did so without compromising vehicle safety or the
expectations of consumers. A similar solution should be adopted here.
Why do California legislators feel compelled to push the envelope even
when a clear compromise is available? Why do California’s regulations
always have to be that much more restrictive than other states? We can
have high standards for environmental protection, and strive to improve
our air, water and lands around us. But these goals should never come
at the expense of human safety.
SB 346
can be fixed, but that will only happen if Senator Kehoe and the
Legislature take the time to address the bill’s conflicting safety and
environmental problems. They need to take into consideration the
industry’s needs for flexibility in compliance deadlines in order to
ensure that safe, commercially viable alternatives will be found for
every single make, model and class of vehicle on our roads. Safety must
always be the number one priority for the industry, and it should be
for our legislators as well.