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SACRAMENTO – A proposed crackdown on millions of Bay Area motorists, blamed for the wind-blown smog that spills into an already-polluted Central Valley, cleared a key committee Tuesday on its way to a Senate vote expected this month. 

The Senate Transportation Committee voted 12-1 for a bill to force tougher, more costly Smog Check II tests on Bay Area car owners in hopes of curbing Central Valley air pollution by up to 10 percent. 

The bill, AB2637, could cost Bay Area residents $10 million to $14 million a year, said Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch. It could also cost smog test businesses up to $75 million for new equipment, according to Larry Armstrong, owner of Bay Area tuneup shops. 

But valley legislators, representing one of America’s fastest-growing, poorest and smoggiest regions, insist they can’t clean up their own air if Bay Area smog keeps blowing in through the Carquinez Straits and Altamont Pass. A California Air Resources Board report has estimated that 27 percent of smog in the northern San Joaquin Valley comes from the Bay Area, compared to 11 percent in the middle and 8 percent in the southern valley. Meanwhile, the American Lung Association lists Sacramento, Merced, Fresno, Visalia and Bakersfield among its 10 smoggiest American metro areas. 

“The American Lung Association finds asthma rates skyrocketing all over the valley,” said Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, an Atwater Democrat and author of the bill, which passed the Assembly 61-6 in May. 

The Bay Area received an exemption from the tougher smog test during a brief time when it complied with federal air quality standards. Cardoza, meanwhile, has gotten a green light for the bill so far after providing a critical vote last month for an Assembly bill that begins regulating carbon dioxide emissions from auto tailpipes in 2009. 

Bay Area opponents to the bill say the valley’s ever-worsening air pollution is largely self-inflicted, and accuse the region of not adequately regulating its own dust and open-air burning by farmers. The valley also accounts for some of California’s largest increases in population growth and driving. 

Numerous valley political and air pollution officials testified for the bill Tuesday, including Sen. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, who said, despite occasional doubts about the effectiveness of Smog Check II, “If it’s good, it ought to apply to everybody.” 

Smog Check II is a more extensive and tougher check than the traditional tailpipe probe and visual inspection. The newer test costs about $10 extra and puts some cars on a treadmill to check for nitrogen dioxide, a key element of ozone formation. 

The bill also exempts more cars statewide from the tougher smog test. Presently, cars less than four years old are exempt. The new law extends that exemption to cars less than six years old.