I guess I am one of the few people in the United States that actually appreciates some of the state and federal agencies that help protect us from our greed and stupidity.
Mankind as a whole cares not what the long term ramifications of a present need or desire creates as we as creatures with a fairly short life span just don't care happens after we die.
I care about today and I care about or planet for far longer than my little time on it for my kid and his kids and their kids and so on.
Clean water, safe food, and of course clean air.
Trade tariffs and such aside, the Environmental Protection Agency is what most of us little 2-stroke engine buyers worry about and for good reason, the basic engine design is extremely inefficient at fossil fuel use and trying to make them compliant with arbitrary emissions limits seems like a really bad thing, but is it?
I left Phoenix, AZ in the mid 80's to take a job in the Los Angeles, CA metro area but lived out in the San Fernando Valley for a year and a half commuting downtown and the air was so bad my eyes hurt, my lungs hurt, etc and now look at you California, clean air.
Did you know that the 2-stroke engines made in Chine are not even legal there?
Why? Well if you ever see the news the major cities in China have such bad air from such cheap fossil fuel burning you have to walk around with a mask, and on some days wear eye protection and tote an oxygen bottle!
2-stroke engines can be made more efficient, heck the right carb, ignition and exhaust can make them very efficient but in the big picture we call 'em smokers for a reason.
Pollution rules saved California and I have watched with keen interest how industry has improved everything from lawn mowers and weed whippers to cars, to diesel big rigs, trains, and even big ships and I can literally breath easier and swallow down the extra cost with clean water and feel better that humans as a whole are finally starting to understand that killing our environment is not in our best interest, especially when it's the 2 most important things that let us even live which is what the EPA's main job is.
China engine factories took a big hit this year when nothing 2-stroke is now allowed in the US as an engine this year and maybe that is not such a bad thing, there simply must be designs for a cheap rotational power source that will accommodate our desire meager power needs to help a bicycle along and I look forward to it.
Hypocrite Alert:
I did my part only buying current year EPA certified SKyhawk 2-stroke kits the last 3 years (like 70 of them for builds) but when they didn't get 2013 EPA and 2012 prices doubled I bought half a dozen of the 'parts in a box' kits with no EPA approved stuff in them.
Like most everyone else I guess I too put my immediate livelihood ability to eat above above the bigger picture but again that is human nature.
Stock up on what is available today?
What can I say I haven't in this long post but I still have 3 kits and if they go away that's OK, the 4-strokes and electrics may cost more but they work great.