[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 309 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 309

    Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to the use of 
  selective Inspection and Maintenace (I&M) programs as part of State 
             implementation plans under the Clean Air Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 6, 1994

  Mr. Barton of Texas submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
    Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to the use of 
  selective Inspection and Maintenace (I&M) programs as part of State 
             implementation plans under the Clean Air Act.

Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency's mobile source emission model, such 
        as MOBILE 4 and MOBILE 5, have seriously underestimated the contribution 
        of mobile source emissions to overall pollution, and tests indicate that 
        mobile source pollution is two to three times greater than the 
        Environmental Protection Agency model predicts;
Whereas recent studies indicate that a small percent of the in-use automobiles 
        cause a disproportionate percentage of the pollution (called gross 
        polluters), and as little as 10 percent of in-use vehicles cause 50 
        percent of the pollution;
Whereas studies conducted by the California Air Resources Board indicate that 
        current conventional I&M programs have been shown to be ineffective, and 
        results of roadside surveys conducted in California have shown that 
        failure rates of vehicles and tampering of vehicles in I/M areas and 
        non-I/M areas are identical;
Whereas 40 percent of all gross polluting cars have been tampered with, in spite 
        of the best efforts of I/M programs;
Whereas information suggests that both old and new cars are gross polluting 
        cars; because there are many more new cars than old, new cars contribute 
        a larger portion of mobile source pollution;
Whereas there is little evidence that a newer fleet in and of itself would be a 
        significantly cleaner fleet; new cars become gross polluters at a rate 
        comparable to older cars;
Whereas all approaches that attempt to solve the problem created by a small 
        percentage of the fleet, by treating the fleet as a whole, are cost 
        ineffective in fighting automobile emissions, and detrimental to our 
        economy;
Whereas research indicates that an effective way to locate gross polluters and 
        locate cheaters is through on-road remote sensing of vehicle emissions;
Whereas remote sensing can make thousands of more measurements than conventional 
        methods in the same time frame, cannot be cheated on, is many times 
        cheaper, and allows society to concentrate on the small percentage of 
        cars that cause the pollution; remote sensing is fully sufficient in 
        identifying carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons; initial findings indicate 
        it will  be equally effective for nitric oxide;
Whereas remote sensing of in-use vehicle emissions now makes feasible to 
        directly determine mobile emission trends, and thereby to assess the 
        effectiveness of current emissions control activities and aid in 
        predicting the utility of possible new emissions approaches; and
Whereas present flaws in this country's I/M program will be perpetuated unless 
        corrected: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That (a) the Environmental Protection Agency should modify regulations 
that implement the Clean Air Act to permit any State in nonattainment 
to adopt a State Implementation Plan that relies wholly or partly on a 
selective Inspection and Maintenance program. Such selective Inspection 
and Maintenance program should focus on how best to locate and repair 
that small proportion of the fleet that causes the majority of the 
pollution, called gross polluters. States should adopt the most cost-
effective method of locating and fixing gross polluters, but shall 
consider the use of on-road remote sensing as one method of screening 
automobiles.
    (b) Environmental Protection Agency regulations under the Clean Air 
Act should provide that States which opt for a selective I/M program 
will receive the appropriate credits which are in no event less than 
the actual pollution reduction achieved by such a program and should 
provide that in determining the actual pollution reduction that is 
achieved, States do not need to use any computer model but may rely on 
actual data accumulated during the use of the above program.
    (c) Environmental Protection Agency regulations under the Clean Air 
Act should require States to compile the information gained through the 
use of infrared remote testing and other methods of on-road testing. 
After one year's time, such information should be sent to a centralized 
data base where an individual panel of experts, to be selected by the 
National Research Council, should be convened annually, to evaluate 
this data. The Panel should use this and other appropriate information 
to report on on-road emission status and trend, the effectiveness of 
current and proposed vehicle emission control activities, and 
recommendations regarding improvements to correct deficiencies and 
enhance the capabilities of the Environmental Protection Agency's 
mobile source emission models.
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