The emissions test fails our citizens

Written by Ed Dadakis
Thursday, 02 February 2012 01:00

I’ve just completed my emissions testing and don’t know whether I should be happy I passed or mad I had to go through this charade again.

My 1997 Chevy Blazer passed yet again. It is 15 years old and has passed every single emissions test, which I guess is as many as 10.

Each time I take the car to the testing site, first in Darien off I-95 and now in Old Greenwich, wait from 20 minutes to an hour, fork over $20, or $40 when I miss the deadline, the car comes through with flying colors.

In the 15 years I’ve owned the car I’ve never tuned up the engine or changed the spark plugs or fixed the emissions system, yet it passes year after year. This is how ridiculous the emission testing law is in Connecticut. Cars today are engineered so well they simply don’t exceed the standards mandated even if nothing is done to them. Sure some cars fail and, while I couldn’t get any statistics, it is far less then 5%, perhaps as low as less than 1%.

Kudos to Sen. Bill Nickerson, who spearheaded the change in the emission laws so that cars are tested only every two years and only after they are four years old. That doesn’t help me or tens of thousands of Connecticut residents who are not only forced to surrender hard-earned dollars but also significant time for an unnecessary service.

I repeat this process three times every two years. I keep my cars as long as possible, up to 20 years. None of these cars have ever failed and I’ve never tuned them up. To add insult to injury, if I miss a testing deadline I have to pay a $20 penalty, not because I am polluting but because I missed an arbitrary deadline.

What would’ve happened had I failed, you may ask. You would expect to be required to fix the car and reduce pollution or get it off the road. Wrong. This is Connecticut government — it never makes sense.

If your car fails, you have 60 days to have it repaired. However, after you have spent $767, if the car still fails you get a waiver and may continue to drive the car and pollute the air. The Connecticut emissions laws provides for the worst polluting cars to continue to pollute. This makes no sense.

Do you ever wonder why you never see trucks getting tested? Follow a few of them around town and you quickly realize they are polluting far worse than any car. The reason is that vehicles over 10,000 pounds are exempt from emissions testing. The bigger the vehicle the more it pollutes and it pollutes with impunity. This makes no sense.

Connecticut’s emission testing program allows the worst polluters to continue to pollute and costs Connecticut’s car owners who don’t pollute money and time with no significant reduction in pollution. Let’s either have the law apply to all vehicles and take the polluting ones off the road, or repeal it.

Now that’s common sense, but don’t expect any of that from Connecticut government.

Ed Dadakis is the former chairman of the Greenwich Republican Town Committee. The new “Greenwich Voices” column will feature a range of perspectives on the issues that matter to town residents. Mr. Dadakis is one of five columnists recruited to participate.