Equal Protection of the Laws of the United States

Here is the waiver you are talking about:
Quote:

The Clean Air Act itself provides a process for which a state may apply stricter Clean Air standards for new cars than the Federal law allows.

If the Federal Clean Air Act did not provide for an appeals process to get a waiver, and the Federal government simply decided not to apply the law in California, you might possibly have an argument. But here, California is simply following the Federal law and using the appeals process that is in the law itself.

It should be pointed out again that this waiver only allows California to apply Clean Air standards that are stricter than the Federal law, not less strict. So the people of California are protected more, not less, from dirty air coming from cars than the rest of the country. I would also point out that, due to the famous smog in Southern Cal, California has had stricter state Clean Air laws than the Federal laws since at least the 1970s. They probably put the appeals process to allow stricter Clean Air standards in the Federal bill because otherwise all the California legislators in Congress would vote against the bill if it wasn't there. And California has over 10% of the legislators in Congress-the bill would have a lot of trouble passing if all the California legislators voted against it.

Blickers-

Thank you very much.

Does the waiver that California received: Cover new cars sold at dealerships located in California? Any car registered with the California Motor Vehicle Department?

It looks like California has gotten many waivers on several things from the Clean Air Act, all the waivers were to allow California to make stricter clean air standards than the Federal law requires. From what I have read, there is no reason to believe that it does not apply to cars bought from dealers, I mean, that is where almost everyone buys a new car. Here is an article in the Atlantic which deals with the situation in greater detail:
Atlantic article on California waiver

Blickers-

Thank you.

So, I guess it doesn't matter it the car was manufactured in California or not.

If you buy a car outside of California that doesn't comply with California's waiver, and you then move to California, whether you need to have your car engine modified?

How does the manufacturing modification required by California affect the operation of the car? Lower gas mileage?

Don't know. I suggest you call the California Motor Vehicle dep't. Either that, or start a thread entitled something like Moving With My Car to California-Emissions A Problem? There are bound to be some Californians on the board who can tell you.