National Auto Glass Conference Coverage: California Expected to Increase Glass Regulation

Put the words "new," "regulation" and "California" before any industry and you are bound to attract a worried group. Such was the case yesterday afternoon when approximately 30 auto glass industry participants turned out to attend a quickly-arranged Town Hall Forum with Sharon Lemieux, manager of the emission section of the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

CARB is to California what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to much of the rest of the country-and, in fact, many CARB regulations eventually make their way to the EPA and that is expected to be even more true now that key CARB officials have been appointed to the EPA by the new administration.

The proposed CARB regulations would affect most motor vehicles on the road below 10,000 pounds in weight including passenger cars in the year 2012 and beyond. The proposal states that cars must transmit no more than 40 percent of the total light spectrum. This would also be true of any glass replaced in the car after 2012.

Lemieux asked for feedback on the proposed regulations and included a series of questions about how the auto glass industry works and what types of products are available. "It was sort of a draft-first, ask-questions-later approach, but I still appreciated hearing it," said one attendee.

"We want to work with the glass industry," Lemieux said. "We are open to feedback."