Bill Exempts Newer Vehicles From Emissions Test
ELLWOOD CITY (KDKA) -- Automobile owners may get a break.
PA Sen. Elder Vogel, R-New Sewickley, says it's time to modify Pennsylvania's auto emissions inspection requirement.
"My bill excludes all cars, 10 years or newer," Vogel told KDKA Money Editor Jon Delano. "So we go back to 2002 right now, so anybody with 2002 or newer car wouldn't have to have it done."
Right now, car owners in Allegheny, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties must get an annual auto emissions inspection on top of an auto safety inspection, while those in Armstrong, Butler, Greene, Fayette, and Lawrence do not.
That extra sticker costs $30 to $40 a year.
"I think it's a bunch of BS -- it should be all or none," says Ray Barrow, the owner of M&M Auto. Barrow does inspections in Koppel, Beaver County.
When it comes to newer cars, he notes, "Very few fail. If they do, it's a gas cap."
Vogel says with computerized engines, only a quarter of one percent of newer cars fail and the inspection program costs car owners $250 million a year.
Ellwood City, split between two counties, demonstrates the unfairness.
"Beaver County has to have it. Lawrence County doesn't. So actually, right where we're at on Division Avenue, over here you have to have emissions -- over here you don't," says Josh Figurel of Ellwood City.
Figurel has lived on both sides of the street.
"So we had to have emissions and now we don't -- same car," he adds.
Vogel's bill may pass the state Senate this fall, but there is no action planned at all in the state House of Representatives.
That means the bill will have to start all over again next January. If you feel strongly about this issue, this is a good time to call your state representative.
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State Sen. Elder Vogel, Jr.
