Professor
04-07-2007, 02:27 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-emissions_bd08apr08,1,4614202.story?coll=chi-news-hed
State gives old beaters a free ride
New emissions policy means dirtier air for Illinois
By Michael Hawthorne (mhawthorne@tribune.com)
Tribune staff reporter
April 8, 2007
The days of driving old beaters to an emissions-testing station for a tailpipe check are ending in Illinois, but the result will be dirtier air in the Chicago area for at least the next five years.
In a major overhaul of its system for testing cars and trucks for noxious exhaust, the state is scrapping all tests for vehicles built before 1996, the ones that tend to be the dirtiest. Newer cars will be checked through onboard computers, a procedure some experts find less reliable than tailpipe tests.
Requiring owners to fix vehicles that fail emissions checks is intended to help protect people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments. But internal state documents show that the changes are expected to boost smog-producing pollution from cars significantly in the short term—by 37 percent in 2009, for example.
Nearly 40 percent of the dirty cars found last year, 72,530 in all, would have gone undetected under the new program, according to a Tribune analysis of state data.
State legislators overwhelmingly approved the change, to be implemented over the next year, after Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration promised it would save taxpayers money. Some of the savings will come from eliminating the tests for older cars if they passed their last check.
State officials justify that move by noting vehicles built before 1996 represent a declining share of road traffic. They predict most will be gone by 2012.
Yet studies show a tiny fraction of cars are responsible for most car pollution. One Illinois study found that one in 20 cars produces more pollution than the other 19 combined.
Relaxing the state's testing program, some scientists contend, will make it more difficult to find and fix the most troublesome vehicles.
Douglas Lawson, an air quality researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., compared the new Illinois system to a doctor telling a 45-year-old man with a healthy heart that he never needs to have his blood pressure checked again.
"This is your government at work," Lawson said.
State officials earlier this year quietly began shifting the testing program to a company represented by a major political fundraiser for Blagojevich. The existing testing stations will be replaced next year with a new network that might include neighborhood repair shops.
The state is spending nearly $100 million on the changes, less than a decade after Illinois paid millions to install complex testing equipment at the existing testing facilities.
To promote the new system, the details of which are still being ironed out, the Blagojevich administration awarded a $4 million no-bid contract to an engineering firm that hasn't previously done public-relations work for the state but has contributed $40,000 to the governor's campaign fund.
State officials awarded another politically connected company a lucrative contract extension to keep running the emissions program during the transition. That company has run the testing program since it began but lost out on the new deal.
Officials at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency defend the changes as a more cost-effective way to run the program and say politics did not play a role in the contracts. Tests now cost taxpayers $13 a car. The price has been shaved to $6.95 per test under the new contract.
Promotional efforts are expected to focus on motorist convenience. Most owners of older cars won't have to be tested again, and there will be more stations to test newer cars.
"This gives us long-standing ability to keep the program and afford it," said EPA Director Doug Scott.
Clean-air activists fear the revamped program will undermine efforts to get dirty clunkers off the roads.
"They could be driving down the road blowing smoke and it would all be perfectly legal," said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago.
Federal regulators all but require emissions tests in parts of the nation with the worst pollution by threatening to withhold highway funding.
In Illinois, that means Chicago and its suburbs and parts of three Downstate counties near St. Louis.
Technicians at first used tailpipe probes to check for noxious fumes while idling and revving a car's engine. That system was replaced in the late 1990s with expensive treadmill-like dynamometers designed to better simulate actual driving conditions.
More than 1.9 million cars were tested with the dynamometers last year, according to EPA records.
Of the 193,612 that failed, 37 percent were pre-1996 vehicles that won't be checked under the new system.
State officials acknowledge that the latest changes will lead to more pollution but shrug it off as a temporary problem that will taper off as older cars are scrapped.
They also contend the new system is more likely to detect chronic problems and nudge motorists into fixing them.
As part of the changes, drivers won't be able to renew their vehicle registration until their car or truck passes.
The state previously would give owners a new license plate sticker, good for an entire year, while threatening to yank their driver's license or registration later if they didn't pass the test.
"We're taking advantage of advancements in technology for maintenance and compliance," said Christopher Demeroukas, the EPA's manager of mobile source programs.
The U.S. EPA has been encouraging states to adopt the computerized emissions tests. But independent reviewers have long criticized the federal agency for giving states credit for their programs without verifying they work.
The federal government uses a computer program to assess whether states are effectively controlling pollution from cars. Studies of actual emissions found the air remained twice as dirty as generally predicted by the computer model, according to a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report that Lawson helped write.
In some cases, researchers found the program didn't clean the air at all.
The academy's report also raised concerns about the use of onboard computers, concluding they could be too stringent. Many of the cars that "fail" those tests, the report concluded, likely do not need to be repaired.
"You could end up having a lot of people spending money to get relatively small problems fixed," said Donald Stedman, a Denver University chemistry professor who specializes in auto emissions research.
Stedman and other critics also worry that people could tamper with their cars' computers to ensure they pass the test.
By this time next year the Illinois testing program should be operated by Applus Technologies, a Chicago company that won a five-year, $99 million state contract. The firm beat out Envirotest, the Connecticut-based company that has run the Illinois program since 1986.
But because state officials haven't finalized their negotiations with Applus on where new testing stations will be located, they gave Envirotest a $23 million contract extension to conduct the computer tests as long as necessary.
Stop by one of the old testing stations and the change under way is already evident.
The dynamometers have stopped rolling, except when older cars that need a final test or flunked previous tailpipe checks pull in for another try. Technicians hook cables to computers inside newer vehicles and download codes that signal if emissions controls are failing.
Once the new Illinois system is finalized, the changes will be promoted by Parsons Commercial Technology Group, an engineering firm that runs emissions checks in a handful of other states. The company beat out several public-relations firms for the $4 million Illinois contract.
Applus is represented by Milan Petrovic, a longtime Illinois lobbyist and major political fundraiser for Blagojevich. One of the registered lobbyists for Envirotest is John Wyma, chief of staff during Blagojevich's stint in Congress and political director for his 2002 campaign for governor.
The man overseeing the Illinois tests for Applus previously had the same job for Envirotest.
"It's a small industry," said Dennis Palmer, Applus' director of business development. "We tend to bump into one another."
State gives old beaters a free ride
New emissions policy means dirtier air for Illinois
By Michael Hawthorne (mhawthorne@tribune.com)
Tribune staff reporter
April 8, 2007
The days of driving old beaters to an emissions-testing station for a tailpipe check are ending in Illinois, but the result will be dirtier air in the Chicago area for at least the next five years.
In a major overhaul of its system for testing cars and trucks for noxious exhaust, the state is scrapping all tests for vehicles built before 1996, the ones that tend to be the dirtiest. Newer cars will be checked through onboard computers, a procedure some experts find less reliable than tailpipe tests.
Requiring owners to fix vehicles that fail emissions checks is intended to help protect people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments. But internal state documents show that the changes are expected to boost smog-producing pollution from cars significantly in the short term—by 37 percent in 2009, for example.
Nearly 40 percent of the dirty cars found last year, 72,530 in all, would have gone undetected under the new program, according to a Tribune analysis of state data.
State legislators overwhelmingly approved the change, to be implemented over the next year, after Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration promised it would save taxpayers money. Some of the savings will come from eliminating the tests for older cars if they passed their last check.
State officials justify that move by noting vehicles built before 1996 represent a declining share of road traffic. They predict most will be gone by 2012.
Yet studies show a tiny fraction of cars are responsible for most car pollution. One Illinois study found that one in 20 cars produces more pollution than the other 19 combined.
Relaxing the state's testing program, some scientists contend, will make it more difficult to find and fix the most troublesome vehicles.
Douglas Lawson, an air quality researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., compared the new Illinois system to a doctor telling a 45-year-old man with a healthy heart that he never needs to have his blood pressure checked again.
"This is your government at work," Lawson said.
State officials earlier this year quietly began shifting the testing program to a company represented by a major political fundraiser for Blagojevich. The existing testing stations will be replaced next year with a new network that might include neighborhood repair shops.
The state is spending nearly $100 million on the changes, less than a decade after Illinois paid millions to install complex testing equipment at the existing testing facilities.
To promote the new system, the details of which are still being ironed out, the Blagojevich administration awarded a $4 million no-bid contract to an engineering firm that hasn't previously done public-relations work for the state but has contributed $40,000 to the governor's campaign fund.
State officials awarded another politically connected company a lucrative contract extension to keep running the emissions program during the transition. That company has run the testing program since it began but lost out on the new deal.
Officials at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency defend the changes as a more cost-effective way to run the program and say politics did not play a role in the contracts. Tests now cost taxpayers $13 a car. The price has been shaved to $6.95 per test under the new contract.
Promotional efforts are expected to focus on motorist convenience. Most owners of older cars won't have to be tested again, and there will be more stations to test newer cars.
"This gives us long-standing ability to keep the program and afford it," said EPA Director Doug Scott.
Clean-air activists fear the revamped program will undermine efforts to get dirty clunkers off the roads.
"They could be driving down the road blowing smoke and it would all be perfectly legal," said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago.
Federal regulators all but require emissions tests in parts of the nation with the worst pollution by threatening to withhold highway funding.
In Illinois, that means Chicago and its suburbs and parts of three Downstate counties near St. Louis.
Technicians at first used tailpipe probes to check for noxious fumes while idling and revving a car's engine. That system was replaced in the late 1990s with expensive treadmill-like dynamometers designed to better simulate actual driving conditions.
More than 1.9 million cars were tested with the dynamometers last year, according to EPA records.
Of the 193,612 that failed, 37 percent were pre-1996 vehicles that won't be checked under the new system.
State officials acknowledge that the latest changes will lead to more pollution but shrug it off as a temporary problem that will taper off as older cars are scrapped.
They also contend the new system is more likely to detect chronic problems and nudge motorists into fixing them.
As part of the changes, drivers won't be able to renew their vehicle registration until their car or truck passes.
The state previously would give owners a new license plate sticker, good for an entire year, while threatening to yank their driver's license or registration later if they didn't pass the test.
"We're taking advantage of advancements in technology for maintenance and compliance," said Christopher Demeroukas, the EPA's manager of mobile source programs.
The U.S. EPA has been encouraging states to adopt the computerized emissions tests. But independent reviewers have long criticized the federal agency for giving states credit for their programs without verifying they work.
The federal government uses a computer program to assess whether states are effectively controlling pollution from cars. Studies of actual emissions found the air remained twice as dirty as generally predicted by the computer model, according to a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report that Lawson helped write.
In some cases, researchers found the program didn't clean the air at all.
The academy's report also raised concerns about the use of onboard computers, concluding they could be too stringent. Many of the cars that "fail" those tests, the report concluded, likely do not need to be repaired.
"You could end up having a lot of people spending money to get relatively small problems fixed," said Donald Stedman, a Denver University chemistry professor who specializes in auto emissions research.
Stedman and other critics also worry that people could tamper with their cars' computers to ensure they pass the test.
By this time next year the Illinois testing program should be operated by Applus Technologies, a Chicago company that won a five-year, $99 million state contract. The firm beat out Envirotest, the Connecticut-based company that has run the Illinois program since 1986.
But because state officials haven't finalized their negotiations with Applus on where new testing stations will be located, they gave Envirotest a $23 million contract extension to conduct the computer tests as long as necessary.
Stop by one of the old testing stations and the change under way is already evident.
The dynamometers have stopped rolling, except when older cars that need a final test or flunked previous tailpipe checks pull in for another try. Technicians hook cables to computers inside newer vehicles and download codes that signal if emissions controls are failing.
Once the new Illinois system is finalized, the changes will be promoted by Parsons Commercial Technology Group, an engineering firm that runs emissions checks in a handful of other states. The company beat out several public-relations firms for the $4 million Illinois contract.
Applus is represented by Milan Petrovic, a longtime Illinois lobbyist and major political fundraiser for Blagojevich. One of the registered lobbyists for Envirotest is John Wyma, chief of staff during Blagojevich's stint in Congress and political director for his 2002 campaign for governor.
The man overseeing the Illinois tests for Applus previously had the same job for Envirotest.
"It's a small industry," said Dennis Palmer, Applus' director of business development. "We tend to bump into one another."