[T]he Senate passed a bill Thursday that would exempt cars older than 10 years from emissions testing after rejecting an amendment that would have narrowed the exemption from vehicles older than 15 years.
The Senate Transportation Committee started off the session discussing how to shield lower income Vermonters from the costs of coming into line with federal emissions standards.
The committee debated providing need-based waivers or repair subsidies, but decided that an exemption for older cars was simpler and quicker. The Senate gave a preliminary OK to a bill, S.84, that would exempt cars 10 years or older from emissions testing.
But environmental concerns put the bill’s progress on pause and it was returned to the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which crafted an amendment to narrow the exemption.
Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, the committee chair, referred to his proposal to exempt cars older than 15 years from testing as a “compromise” between concerns over the economic impact of inspections related car repairs on low income Vermonters and wanting to minimize air pollution.
On the senate floor Thursday, he referenced a 2013 article from the scientific journal “Atmospheric Environment,” which said that Vermont had 56 premature deaths in 2005 due to particulate matter pollution.
While the opioid crisis triggers a “strong response” if the state has 50 or 60 deaths from drug overdoses, health impacts related to “dirty air” are not as high profile, said Bray.
“It’s mostly invisible these days,” he said of tailpipe emissions. “Cars don’t smoke as much, but if you were to crouch down and spend 30 seconds right at your tailpipe…your eyes would be watery, you might be coughing some.”
Exempting cars older than 10 years would result in a loss of two thirds of currently required emissions reductions, while the 15 model year window would result in a one third emissions reductions loss, according to data from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Sen. Andy Perchlik, D/P-Washington, stood up to say that the Senate Transportation Committee, which had expressed tentative support for Bray’s amendment last week, wanted to stick with the original proposal of 10 years.
He questioned how much of an impact exempting older cars from emissions testing would have on the death statistics, which he said he believed included deaths related to diesel emissions. The emissions testing being debated does not apply to diesel vehicles, which emit the most particulates, he added.
“It’s not clear if this amendment were to pass if we were going to improve this,” he said.
