A recent USA Today editorial titled "Smog Checks Fall Short of Much-Touted Success" wrongly criticized air quality programs across the country. The stimulus for the piece is the new air quality program in Kentucky set to start this fall. Writers described a failed national program that varies from state to state, "And a poorly maintained, dirty car can belch out as much pollution as 1,000 clean cars. But while the problem is well recognized, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's favored solution falls short."

USA Today selects several key states in citing the inspection and maintenance program's shortcomings. Arizona and Colorado are at the top of the list. "In Arizona, a third of the cars that initially fail an emissions test never pass, yet more than a third of them stay on the road without getting required repairs," cited USA Today. Editorialists continued, "Colorado found that 29 percent of the cars that failed initially in 1995 failed again in 1997. And in Arizona, pollution from failing cars was found to climb after they'd been fixed wiping out much if not all of the improvement." USA Today emphasized two components of the program: 1) people cheat and 2) repairs deteriorate.

The newspaper wraps up by critiquing the EPA's defense of the program: "The agency effectively blocks cheaper - and possibly more effective - alternatives to scheduled tests. Among the more promising: mobile, roadside pollution detectors that catch the worst polluters as they drive by, sparing clean cars the need for scheduled tests. Worse, the EPA lets states off the hook by giving them credit for pollution cuts that aren't actually occurring. Fixing this requires a reordering of priorities. Protecting pet programs isn't the EPA's mission."

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has been involved in these programs since the beginning at the state and federal levels. USA Today's editorial feeds a simplistic frenzy that has wounded both emissions and safety inspection programs across the country. The backlash against emissions inspection and maintenance has caused our state safety programs not only to halt in number, but also to diminish in recent years.

Vehicle emissions have dropped steadily since the start of the 1980s. Air quality has improved even as the number of vehicles and miles driven has soared. The EPA has much to do with cleaner air for America. It is the EPA's auto emission standards introduced in the late 1970s, and subsequently tightened in combination with vehicle inspection programs, that brought about this improvement. Even the various industry and policymakers that have opposed many of the EPA's initiatives must admit that the EPA standards have improved air quality. State decisions to invoke decentralized or centralized testing programs are difficult but effective.

Now, some fine-tuning of inspection programs is appropriate because of the improvement in vehicle reliability brought about by the EPA standards. Improved equipment and emerging technologies, such as roadside pollution detectors, will play a role in this and the EPA is moving in the right direction, albeit less dramatically than some might wish. ASA has been concerned that EPA is not promoting inspection and maintenance programs to the degree they were advocated after the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Again, states should have the right to select their own types of programs, but without encouragement from the EPA, substantive programs may not evolve.

Clearly, combination programs are options to consider for the future. These programs might include clean screening, more frequent inspection of older cars and an element of gross emitter identification. Roadside pollution detectors can identify those who continue to drive dirty vehicles in an area while registering the vehicle elsewhere. They can also help in the early detection of the dirtiest vehicles on the road whose repairs may have failed, thus helping to fix two of the biggest leaks in current inspection programs. These roadside detectors are far from perfect; however, they certainly have a role to play. It is very unlikely that these roadside monitors can replace the need for controlled vehicle tests anytime soon. Annual inspection of vehicles more than 10 years old, which contribute a far greater proportion of on-road emissions than their numbers warrant, would also improve the effectiveness of inspection and maintenance programs. Efforts to expand air quality standards geographically may have been delayed by a recent federal court decision but are a necessary, practical consideration for the future.

Early in the inspection and maintenance policy debate, programs struggled with many issues. State air quality managers continue to strive to improve how the consumer fares in the process as well as the quality of their testing. These are not simple issues. Vehicle emissions are notoriously variable depending on drivers' habits. These variables are why the EPA developed the 240-second treadmill test in which vehicles are driven under load following a defined speed trace. Roadside detectors measure vehicle emissions for only a fraction of a second.

The EPA is already moving to improve the focus of inspection programs. Last summer the EPA published draft guidelines that relieve vehicles determined to be clean through non-intrusive inspection methods from having to go to an inspection station. Also being studied is the effectiveness of vehicle on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices. The EPA should progress cautiously since vehicle emissions are not going to disappear anytime soon. A recent San Francisco Bay area study forecasts a 250 percent increase in traffic congestion by 2020.

The alternatives to the EPA auto emissions standards are still in their fledgling stage and are far from providing comprehensive results. Just because the EPA standards are not perfect does not mean we should eliminate the whole program, especially if our goal is the continued improvement in air quality. We have to continue to rely on what has gotten us this far, improving and refining it as we can, and continuing to explore newer, more focused and convenient technologies. Until we can replace the EPA standards with better ones, we must continue to use what works.

Bob Redding is the Automotive Service Association's Washington, D.C., representative. He is a member of several federal and state advisory committees involved in the automotive industry. For more information about the legislative activities of ASA, visit www.TakingTheHill.com.

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