California gets a lot of the attention and the public discussion when it comes to new legislation affecting body shops and collision centers -- and with good reason. The most populous state is a bellwether for the nation, let alone its western swath of spacious skies and purple mountains, and it’s considered aggressive on legislative and regulatory fronts.
Yet it’s just one of nine states in Autobody News’ West region, along with Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
This 20% of the country is notable for having the most populous “province” -- California of course, with some 40 million people -- and two of the three least-populated areas: Alaska and Wyoming, with fewer than 750,000 each. Idaho has only about 2 million and Nevada about 3 million in population, respectively.
Alaska and Hawaii are literally and figuratively outliers, one generally trending more to the political right, the other to the left. Washington and Oregon are solidly and geographically along the same lines as California, forming a Pacific Coast of lawmaking affecting the industry.
The region overall is strongly influenced by California, a big part of the country, and on the lawmaking move.
Here’s a look at the coming legislative sessions in the West’s nine “and the rest” states.
As California Goes, So Goes the Region
“What happens in California doesn’t stay in California,” said Christian Robinson, senior director of state government affairs for SEMA.
Christian Robinson.
Laws involving electric vehicle mandates and combustion engine restrictions or bans are in place or could be in the works in 17 states -- i.e., including and going beyond the West region. States are following California with these laws, and the EPA is pushing forward on a national level. State emissions efforts are known as “Advanced Clean Cars II” and different jurisdictions differ on it. A Toyota executive in November said California’s EV mandates would be “impossible to meet.”
“States can follow California or EPA on this,” Robinson said.
EPA solidifying its stance would trump state moves, of course.
Robinson sees states, including Western ones like Washington and Oregon, aiming for an early- to mid-2030s timeframe for these restrictions.
“What we’re seeing is a war on international combustion and consumer choice,” Robinson said.
Closer on the horizon are laws related to ADAS and EV battery replacement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills in these areas in the session that ended this year. However, one related to speed limit alerts is being advanced at the national level, and one on battery replacement is expected to return in the 2025 session.
The state is also due to finalize regulations -- administrative action with the force of law -- in the coming year related to towing and storage fees.
Keeping Privacy Private a Growing Factor for Growing MSOs
Customer data collection, storage and use is a growing area of concern in the industry, though likely not for the independent operator. Laws, which apply across industries, generally exclude -- and therefore protect -- smaller operators, by setting baselines for numbers of customers, or minimum revenue figures.
Where it starts to matter is for growing regional MSOs and, of course, the big guys; independent owners who want to sell to the MSOs; and a different kind of “MSO” -- multi-state operations.
The first and second will become more prevalent with growing private equity interest in small- and mid-size MSOs. The third is an issue across a region like the West because, as noted with, for instance, EV mandates, each state is different.
ComplyAuto’s Brad Miller, who heads legal affairs at the software maker, told Autobody News in September that the state level is where these laws are really changing.
“There are lots of layers to this, and all the laws are different,” he said at the time. About half of U.S. states have enacted privacy laws -- again often modeled on California’s -- with more to come, Miller said.
In the West region, Oregon’s privacy rules went into effect this past summer; Montana added its law Oct. 1. Of the rest, Hawaii currently has an “inactive” bill, according to International Association of Privacy Professionals information.
SEMA’s Watching What States Are Doing
As of the end of November, 75 bills are listed on a state-by-state accounting of active bills in the West region, according to a SEMA Action Network map. Some 60% of them, or 45 bills, are in California, with Washington no slouch at half as many: 22.
The rest are sprinkled throughout the region.
Bills address, among other issues, catalytic converter theft, gasoline pricing oversight, replacement tires, sales taxes on cars and trucks, automated vehicles, clean energy and technology -- and emissions.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little in March signed H0640, defining “service-only facility” to delineate businesses that provide automotive service or other repairs from those that also sell and lease vehicles.
Alaska’s HB375 from the 2024 session would have prohibited “state agencies or political subdivisions from restricting the use or sale of a motor vehicle based on its energy source.” That is: they can’t ban any specific kind of car, including gasoline- or diesel-powered.
Alaska, in its session earlier this year, got HB375 through the House of Representatives and through committee in the Senate, but ran out of time.
HB1183 in Washington is similarly poised, aimed at “prohibiting Washington from adopting California vehicle emission standards.”
Want to Know What Might Happen in 2025? Look at 2024
SEMA’s Robinson is optimistic about the coming sessions.
Lobbying for and against legislation is a multi-year process. Bills that didn’t quite make it in 2024 built support for 2025.
In Arizona, in Autobody News’ Southwest region, Robinson said HB2332 “would have legalized cruising and low-riding” -- also of course touching classic car enthusiasts.
It mimicked a 2023 California state law. It passed the state House but died in Senate committee.
“It’s a common-sense piece of legislation for an important subset of the car community,” Robinson said.
He referred to states with legislation opposing emission mandates -- as above in Alaska and Washington, in the West; and in other regions -- as “ban the ban” states.
“We don’t think the government should be choosing what consumers buy,” Robinson said. His state work is in all 50, and states that moved to a ban-the-ban model in some form in 2024 included Maine and Virginia. Other locales -- Rhode Island and New Jersey, for instance -- have in recent years moved in the other direction.
Robinson stressed SEMA’s focus on “innovation and new solutions” over regulation, noting “95% of member companies are small businesses [where] the person answering the phone is the C-Suite, and turning wrenches, and cleaning up at the end of the day.”
Loving it When a Plan Comes Together…Or Doesn’t
With good reason, new laws are often seen as a negative for body shops and collision centers. Sometimes, though, life is good.
Robinson said one odd-sounding area, perhaps, is in license plates. Custom car and hot rod owners are opposed to laws that require two license plates -- i.e., including one on the front.
“For vintage and certain vehicles, odds are there isn’t a bracket on the front to place a license plate,” Robinson said. “For a lot of enthusiasts, that’s a non-starter.”
This year Utah “went from a two-plate state to a one-plate state. We were pleased to see that signed into law.” Utah, also in Autobody News’ Southwest region, often angles similarly to nearby Western states.
Robinson in general sees “more states passing and enacting laws ensuring consumer choice.”
Sometimes it’s what doesn’t happen that’s a nice problem to have. Montana’s legislature, for instance, meets only every odd-numbered year, and only for 90 days. Wyoming’s 2025 session is set to last about 40 days.
Most states begin their sessions in January. Nevada’s starts Feb. 3. California’s starts Dec. 2 and runs nine months.
An area where a thing didn’t happen -- and hasn’t for two decades -- is also a positive for the West, Robinson said.
For a 2003 California law requiring replacement tires to match the efficiency of new ones, SEMA worked up a “carveout” for smaller producers, which so far has been unnecessary.
“The program hasn’t been implemented,” Robinson said. “California hasn’t actually written the rules.”
Paul Hughes