Environmental watchdogs filed suit this month to stop that $12 dirty-air fee now attached to your vehicle registration. Keep your eye on this one, folks.
It's all about the $30 million ozone fine that the San Joaquin Valley pays each year for missing a cleanup deadline in 2010. You are paying most of that fine, and the lawsuit says that's wrong.
This is also about who pollutes and who pays in the Valley -- where there have been more ozone violations in the past 12 years than any other place in the country.
The lawsuit says the fine has been illegally shifted from major industries to residents. Local air authorities and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency don't see it quite that way.
The federal suit was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Latinos United for Clean Air, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Sierra Club.
Fresno Bee, 10/30/12