Catalytic converters are invaluable to the environment because they convert toxic vehicle exhausts into less onerous gases. Unfortunately, the rare earth minerals that they employ for the process — including platinum, palladium and rhodium — make the devices highly valuable to thieves.

Nationally, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, catalytic converter thefts have increased by more than 1,000% over the past several years.

At least 10 states have passed laws in efforts to diminish the problem, and Pennsylvania should follow suit.

The state House Transportation Committee in May passed a bill that would help. It emulates steps that the state took several years ago to help thwart an epidemic of copper thefts. Bold thieves sometimes stripped entire houses of wiring and copper pipes while residents were away, and otherwise stole copper wherever they could find it, even live power lines.

The Legislature adopted new rules requiring scrap dealers to make a record of each copper purchase, including basic information about the seller and the origin of the copper.

Under the committee-passed bill on catalytic converters, someone trying to sell a converter to a scrap dealer would have to provide the year, make, model and vehicle identification number for the vehicle from which it was removed. The dealer buying the unit would have to photograph it and the seller, and withhold payment for two days.

Another bill would require insurers to cover catalytic converter thefts.

Both bills should pass. Making a vehicle owner whole for losses is the purpose of insurance from a consumer standpoint. And disrupting the market by requiring accountability for converter sales likely will slow the trend.

— Scranton Times-Tribune via AP