There’s a new trend in how states with air quality problems carry out
vehicle emissions testing. Some say it will allow cars that give off
harmful pollutants to stay on the road. The Great Lake’s Radio Consortium’s
Amanda Vinicky reports:
Transcript
There’s a new trend in how states with air quality problems carry out vehicle emissions testing. Some say it will allow cars that give off harmful pollutants to stay on the road. The Great Lake’s Radio Consortium’s Amanda Vinicky reports:
States that are required to test emissions usually test a car’s tailpipe. Illinois is switching to “onboard diagnostics.” That means the vehicle’s onboard computer gives testers all the information they need.
But older cars don’t have computers, so the state’s exempting all cars made before 1996 from testing. Brian Urbaszewski is with the American Lung Association.
“When you stop testing them, people aren’t even going to know their cars are polluting. Or, even if they know, they’re going to be less likely to fix it because there’s no penalty involved.”
The Lung Association says the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s own documents show that air quality will get worse after the 2007 change.
State and federal EPA officials admit that’s true, but they say fewer of those cars will be on the road each year. They say computer testing is better because it detects problems before they happen and it’s cheaper.
For the GLRC, I’m Amanda Vinicky.