[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 148 (Wednesday, November 30, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1990

                                 ______


                          HON. GEORGE W. GEKAS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 29, 1994

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, November 30, 1994, I will send 
a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. 
Browner, with regard to requirements that the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania implement an enhanced automobile inspection and 
maintenance [I&M] program. This letter will be the starting point of a 
campaign to bring common sense to the way we implement the Clean Air 
Act Amendments of 1990.
  In this letter I will outline inconsistencies which have been brought 
to my attention with regard to the enhanced I&M program. For example, 
moderate to marginal nonattainment areas do not have to follow a 
centralized I&M program. However, moderate to marginal nonattainment 
areas of the Northeast Ozone Transport Region must implement such a 
program. Also, the General Accounting Office reported that EPA data 
found that over 25 percent of the vehicles that EPA tested using the 
IM240 test procedure failed an initial emissions test but passed a 
second emissions test, even though no repairs were made to the 
vehicles.
  Mr. Speaker, I have many more concerns and will continue to 
investigate problems with the enhanced I&M program. In addition, I have 
contacted Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., chairman-elect of the House Energy and 
Commerce Committee, and have requested prompt hearings on the issue for 
the 104th Congress.
  In closing, I want to make my colleagues aware that I am drafting 
legislation to be introduced in the 104th Congress that will include at 
its core a delay in the implementation date for the enhanced I&M 
program and require the EPA to reassess its determination with respect 
to the centralized program and issue new regulations governing the 
program. This legislation will have as its objective clean air through 
private sector incentives rather than through heavy-handed regulatory 
means. I ask my colleagues to join me in this effort in the 104th 
Congress.

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