MY 2 Cents worth, I am an importer of Kei trucks in Montana and I have been following all the posts about what the EPA is doing. I will give a little background, as it might help you to understand just what is happing. I am a geologist and am hold Certifications from the EPA and have worked with them and they are the typical officious government agency, who will not pay a lot of attention to congressman unless they have direct control on their budget. I have first hand experience on a issue just like this, In what seems to be a different life, in the 1980 I was an international arms dealer and importer of firearms and machine gun parts into the United States, Back then the Bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms wanted to ban machine gun parts from the US market, They had two ways to accomplish this change in US law without having congress pass new legislation, Either they could make a letter ruling and publish it in the federal register, which is what the EPA is doing in this case, or they can try to change the law by finding an imported and charging him with a crime and gain a conviction and then set a present and thereby change the law. The BATF choose the latter way and they sent a agent who lied before a grand jury and they indicted me with one conspiracy and 43 counts abetting the manufacture of machine guns by selling parts to people who I never meet or spoke with. I filed an suit against the Government, this suit is what is called a “DEC Action” ( Declaratory action), this is where a federal judge looks at the proposed changes ( interpreting) that the government agency is making and determines if this way conforms with the intent of congress when it made the law. The Federal Judge can make a call on if it is correct or overreaching. This legal action does not cost a lot, about $5,000 to $10,000 on this issue of the EPA standards. However it does not stop a criminal prosecution, The BATF cost me $450,000, months of time wasted, and my entire business just to stay out of jail, the six weeks trail ended in 3 days when the BATF gave up, offered me a deal and I have to withdraw my Dec action. I returned to college and pick up a degree another degree in Pre law and for the last 14 years I have been working part time in the legal field. I have read all 348 pages of the proposed federal regs and think it can be challenged. I think you are on the right track in getting people together and this is what I would proposed; 1) start a non profit 501( c ) and get every one to join and donate, it will be tax deductible, if only a small portion of the members here kick in $10-20 and write letters and call the right people, a lot can be done. 2) hire a attorney and get a fixed price for a Declaratory Action, a Washington DC lawyer will bleed you dry and ask for more, I know, I work with them every day. I do not know this guy, he may be different, but he will most likely put his kids through college on this if you let him. 3) Put pressure on the right congressional reps and senators, the ones with the budget control, the EPA is big enough and powerful enough to ignore the rest. 4) If you can not change this then, this Non Profit should buy testing equipment, ship it to Japan and then do certification of the trucks in Japan, this could be a mobile unit, if we all got together the price would be very little per truck, this would beat them at their own game. Do not kid your self this is a way to put about 90% of out of business and mark my words, if you do not challenge this over reaching EPA action, that one of you is going to be charged after these regulations goes into effect and fined $32,500 per day and facing 18 USC 001 which is 5 years for making a false statement to the EPA. The way I see it and read it , the EPA by taking the step and trying to make a used vehicle “new” is very much over reaching and they would have a hard time convincing a Federal Judge that a 1997 Honda is and should be considered a 2008 for testing purposes, that is not what the intent of the original law passed by congress says.
