Court Opinion

ID: 9565383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:19:49.872749+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:35.889223
License: Public Domain

SOSA, Senior Justice, specially concurring. I concur with the four points in this opinion. However, under Point II, I would address the equal protection issue that was raised in oral argument, but not presented in the briefs. Specifically, the question of whether the program should be applied to all state residents or merely to residents of Bernalillo County is one that I believe merits attention. In Wylie Brothers Contracting Co. v. Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board, 80 N.M. 633, 459 P.2d 159 (Ct.App.1969), an opinion dealing with air pollution regulations, Justice Oman anticipated the problems we would encounter if regulations and controls were only local and not statewide. There he prophetically stated: To draft, and particularly to enforce, regulations for the control of emissions from these highly mobile vehicles on a single county-wide basis, would be extremely difficult. The making of regulations relative to the control of emissions from these vehicles belongs to an agency with far greater geographic jurisdiction than that of a single county. The control thereof should be left very largely1,; if not entirely, to the state and federal- governments, (emphasis added). Id. at 644, 459 P.2d at 170. This is an issue of significant importance and general public nature affecting the interest of the state at large and, as such, this Court may consider it. DesGeorges v. Grainger, 76 N.M. 52, 412 P.2d 6 (1966). All citizens, not only those in Bernalillo County, should be afforded protection against air pollutants. A statewide program against vehicular pollution would equally regulate all vehicles in the state and remove the inequities in the program. As presently enforced, the pollution control program subjects only residents of Bernalillo County to the Inspection Program. The greater Albuquerque metropolitan area covers other counties. Citizens of these outside counties use Bernalillo County roads daily yet are not subject to the Inspection Program. This appears to me to be an arbitrary, unfair and selective imposition of a regulation on Bernalillo County residents. It is my reading of Section 66-6-25, NMSA 1978, of the Motor Vehicle Code, that the statute directly prohibits the charging of any fees in connection with the operation of motor vehicles, no matter how noble the purpose. As a matter of public policy and with deep concern for the health and welfare of New Mexico citizens, I agree with the need for an effective program to prevent increased air pollution. However, it is not within the province of the judiciary to change Section 66-6-25. The legislature must remedy this defect.