Vehicle emissions testing – that every-other-year inevitability for Southeastern Wisconsin motorists – has been a target for years. Now, federal lawmakers are taking a turn at changing the rules after recent effort at the state level went nowhere.
The tailpipe tests have been required by the federal Clean Air Act for vehicles registered in seven Southeastern Wisconsin counties since 1984. It now costs about $3.5 million a year, but mechanics only make $2 on every test they perform, and many have left the program because of it.
State Republican lawmakers call the program a tax on lower-income residents – for the sometimes costly repairs required if a test is flunked. They also argue that it’s no longer necessary, as fewer than 1% of later-model vehicles flunk the tests. Those lawmakers sent a letter to Congress to urge legislation repealing the vehicle inspection requirements under the Clean Air Act.
That came to fruition in April, when Republican U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany, Bryan Steil, Scott Fitzgerald and Glenn Grothman and introduced legislation to rewrite Southeastern Wisconsin’s classification as a federally designated Ozone Nonattainment Area. Ground-level ozone, a key component of smog, can inflame the lungs, worsen respiratory diseases like asthma and, over time, cause lasting damage, especially in children and older adults.
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“Because of outdated federal rules, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin drivers in seven counties are forced to complete emissions tests every two years just to renew their registration,” said Tiffany, who is also the presumptive GOP nominee for Wisconsin governor. “Wisconsin families should not be punished with costly and time-consuming mandates because of pollution drifting in from Illinois and Indiana.”
Tiffany also plans to ask U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin for a waiver to end the program, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The program hits low-income Wisconsinites who are pressed to find time for inspections and repairs, he said at a March 30 press conference.
One fact lawmakers rail against is that only about 10% of ground-level ozone in the nonattainment area originates from sources in the state, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The rest drifts in from elsewhere, particularly Illinois and Indiana.
But lifting those rules won’t be so easy, as the ball could be back in state lawmakers’ court next year. The DNR says separate state rules require the emissions testing program, and other provisions in the Clean Air Act require the state to safeguard against any backslide in air quality.
Emissions testing is required in Milwaukee, Racine, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, and parts of Sheboygan and Kenosha counties because they do not meet federal standards for ozone, which exacerbates asthma and causes other respiratory issues, especially in children.
The last state effort to change the program, in 2017, focused on this issue of improving technology with a proposal to exempt vehicles less than 10 years old from testing. But it never moved forward.
Cars made between 1996 and 2009 had an average inspection failure rate of less than 10%, according to a 2021 Wisconsin DOT report. Cars made in 2019 showed a failure rate of less than 1%.
Milwaukee mechanics are often booked up for emissions tests – their lowest-margin service. David Manyo, owner of Manyo Motors on Green Bay Avenue, doesn’t think axing the program will address safety issues with vehicles, as many cars come in with structural issues but return to the road because they run cleanly.
“I don’t want to do it anymore,” says David Manyo, owner of Manyo Motors on Green Bay Avenue. “but I keep doing it because so many places have dropped out and I still have a heart.”
