New Jersey Ending Emissions Testing For Older Cars

The state announced this past week that it's making changes to its vehicle inspection program and exempting older cars from being tested for tailpipe emissions.

The proposed changes mostly affect as many as 200,000 passenger vehicles built in 1995, or before, by eliminating the tailpipe-emissions test.

Beginning May 1, the state Motor Vehicle Commission says, the following passenger vehicles now will be exempted from inspection:

• Gasoline powered vehicles registered passenger, model year 1995 & older with a GVWR 8,500 pounds or less.
• Gasoline powered vehicles registered passenger, model year 2007 & older with a GVWR 8,501 to 14,000 pounds.
• Gasoline powered vehicles registered passenger, model year 2013 & older with a GVWR 14,001 pounds or more.

A passenger vehicle is considered any vehicle registered with one of the following registration codes:

• 1 through 9
• 12 (not utilized to transport passengers as in the manner of a bus)
• 15
• 31
• 73

The decision is drawing flak from environmentalists.

Motor vehicles and other types of transportation are the biggest source of air pollution in New Jersey, and the Sierra Club says the state has never met the federal air-quality standard for ground-level ozone.

The Sierra Club said the decision could decrease air quality and increase safety concerns for motorists and residents.

“What the Christie Administration is doing is wrong; it will impact the people of New Jersey right in the lungs," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a release. "The MVC is siding with polluting old cars over protecting public health and the environment."

The decision, he said, will affect the people in urban areas the most, noting that these areas already have some of the worst air quality in the nation

"For example, Newark’s school children experience a 25 percent asthma rate, double the state and national rates," he said. "Treatment for asthma alone accounts for 12 percent of New Jersey’s managed care costs."

Environmentalists say the Christie Administration is doing this as a continuation of their "rollbacks of clean air." The state is suing the Obama Administration over the Clean Power Plan. Christie pulled New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). New Jersey also did not sign on to the EV compact with eight other states.