government, but not less strict.

"I spent 4 lonely daze in the brown LA haze and I just want you back by my side" And thought, will that happen again? I live in Colorado and we had the notorious "brown cloud". I know much of that was from bad auto emissions but we also have a few coal fired electric plants. Particulates from sand/gravel and salt on the roads was to blame and that has been eliminated or at least reduced. I'm sure my state will continue to do what it's been doing to keep the air clean - but 2018 is a governor election. If a repub gets elected, I will bet they will cut costs by lowering clean air standards and our brown cloud will probably slowly, but surely return. Oh, and frack the hell out of the state.

They are minimum standards. There used to be California model cars but now most cars comply with the California standard.