Having the name of a notorious Old West outlaw can attract some attention. Being the star of a popular TV series and married to actress Sandra Bullock tends to pique interest, too.
But when the California Air Resources Board showed up on the doorstep of Jesse James’ Long Beach specialty motorcycle shop West Coast Choppers in 2005, they weren’t looking for an autograph. Instead, he found himself on the wrong side of changes to a 1998 state law regarding state-certified emissions equipment used by low-volume manufacturers like West Coast Choppers.
James, star of the recently wrapped Discovery Channel reality show “Monster Garage,” turns out about 20 high-end, custom-made motorcycles a year, which can sell for $50,000 or more. He said he was completely unaware of the change in law until the state government came knocking in 2005, and calls the way the board acted “hypocritical.”
“It’s totally my fault because even though nobody notified me, I should have checked the laws,” James said. “Still, they continued to let us register the bikes and issue titles the whole time, and their goal clearly isn’t about cleaning the environment.”
The ARB fined James about $275,000 for 95 motorcycles made between 1998 and 2005 that violated emissions standards, according to his attorney, Christian Picone. The agency initially wanted fines of $22,000 for each bike; sums that James said would have put West Coast Choppers out of business.
Board officials did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Though the process began in 2005 and the settlement was reached months ago, the agency put out a news release about the fines last week.
James said the agency turned down his offer to bring the offending motorcycles into compliance with state emissions standards; they took the cash.
And due to James’ payment of the fines, all of the 95 bikes that were subject to the fines are now considered street legal without any emissions-related modification (making the changes would’ve cost James between $1,000 and $8,000 per bike after the fact, as opposed to about $20 at the time of manufacture).
“I may seem like I have a lot of money, but being famous doesn’t make me rich,” James said. “I said I would fix each and every one of the bikes, but they didn’t want that. I asked them to choose between the environment and the money, and they chose the money.”
California has the strictest emission standards in the United States, and James, 37, said that the hefty fines could put the squeeze on a lot of small manufacturers and shops, potentially running them out of business.
West Coast Choppers employs about 100 people in Long Beach and has clients all over the country; most of his sales are outside California.
“Since people heard about this, a lot of places have started trying to lure West Coast Choppers out of state,” James said. “I have a ton of e-mails from different people in places like New Mexico, Texas, Florida, everywhere, offering me money to move out of state, saying the business is great tax base, we’d love to have your taxes.”
