Summary
Emission standards testing in California
The state of California is resisting the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to implement a centralized system for testing automobile exhaust emissions. Some environmental authorities argue that remote sensing is a more effective way of controlling vehicle emissions.See the full content of this document
Extract
Breathing room.
CALIFORNIA FACES DOWN THE EPA OVER CENTRALIZED SMOG CHECKS.
Some people are easy to trust. When someone carefully explains what he means, listens to your doubts and confusions, and painstakingly meets every inquiry with a well-informed, evenhanded response, you can't help but trust him. That's how it is talking to Douglas Lawson, a major contributor to the study of air pollution. Lawson is one of those earnest, "but-wait-there's-still-a-problem-here" type of guys. While he worked for the California Air Resources Board, the state's lead smog agency, he turned over stones--quite by accident at first--that others preferred left unturned. Then he scrupulously pursued his findings. Now he's at the center of a raging scientific debate, which in turn fuels a raging policy debate, which in turns fuels an ongoing public debate about the competence and integrity of the Environmental Protection Agency. In California, the testing of automobile exhaust emissions-"smog check"--is decentralized. Thousands of private service stations perform emission inspections and offer to make any necessary repairs. Until recently, however, the EPA had been demanding that states centralize their smog-check programs by creating a small number of government-operated facilities responsible only for inspecting cars, not for re...See the full content of this document
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