"I think 1976 was the first model year to have any sort of government-mandated emissions controls. If the law were set up to only require that cars from model year 1976 or later have to meet the emissions standards from when they were originally sold, that would be no problem. But if they are required to meet emissions standards which they were not even designed to meet from the factory, that's asking a bit much."

Au contraire Fat Man, they started the smog deal years before that. Smog pumps, intake air heaters, EGR filters and all that started prior to 1976. I know for a fact that the emmission controls on my VW did not change from 1975, when fuel injection started, to 1979, when they stopped making them.

"Of course the article above doesn't really get into much actual detail of the regulation, so who knows what the hell it actually says."

I have read it several times, what would you like to know? If your car is 1975 or older, there are no checks or requirements. They are starting a rolling exemption for classic cars, which they set out to repeal with this law, that requires tailpipe checks for cars more than 35 years old, but does not require the visual inspection. Ostensibley, this will require that the car be original, but if they can't do a visual inspection, how would they know?

"But--I guess part of the reason California has such strict emissions controls because of places like LA which are covered in smog?"

On paper, that is the intent. If this were truly what they wanted to do, they would not have exemptions for everything that is not a passenger vehicle, motorcycles and commercial vehicles are not checked for example. The reality is that they have created a morass of regulation, differing from county to county. The enforcement process is a HUGE money making machine. They get fees from everyone running the smog test stations, and from everyone getting their car checked. It is in essence a regressive tax on everyone naive enough to register their vehicle in California.