{"id":350844,"date":"2025-12-15T21:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/350844\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T21:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:48:07","slug":"you-cant-police-air-pollution-on-the-honor-system-epa-blocks-ohio-on-killing-e-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/350844\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou can\u2019t police air pollution on the honor system\u201d \u2014 EPA blocks Ohio on killing E-Check"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ohio Republicans thought the Trump administration would rubber-stamp their plan to scrap vehicle emissions testing in Northeast Ohio, but they just hit a major roadblock,<\/a> and the Today in Ohio podcast<\/a> team says of course they did.<\/p>\n

Hosts asked Monday how anyone thought it was a good idea to replace actual emissions testing in E-Check with drivers simply attesting their cars don\u2019t pollute.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, you can\u2019t police air pollution on the honor system,\u201d Leila Atassi said. \u201cThe EPA flat out said inspections are a critical enforcement mechanism and without them, tens of thousands of high-polluting vehicles could stay on the road without any consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican proposal would have eliminated the biannual requirement for vehicles in seven Northeast Ohio counties to undergo emissions testing. Instead, drivers would simply sign a form attesting that their vehicle meets emissions standards\u2014with no actual testing required.<\/p>\n

Chris Quinn said the proposal to have people sign statements claiming their cars don\u2019t pollute presumes people have the ability to test. \u201cHow am I, Joe Q. Public going to be able to say whether my car is polluting or not? Who has that kind of equipment in their garage?\u201d<\/p>\n

The EPA\u2019s formal ruling stated that the self-attestation approach would violate the federal Clean Air Act and undermine Northeast Ohio\u2019s progress toward meeting federal ozone standards. The agency emphasized that E-Check serves a critical purpose\u2014in 2022 alone, testing nearly 800,000 vehicles kept hundreds of tons of harmful pollutants out of the air, including nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide that directly impact public health.<\/p>\n

Atassi took particular issue with the stated justification for eliminating E-Check. Republican lawmakers have argued the program is especially burdensome for lower-income drivers with older cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am always suspicious when Republicans claim to take a position based on how a law impacts low-income people,\u201d Atassi said. \u201cThis bill sponsor is showing a striking and sudden concern for low-income Ohioans here. This from the very same politicians who are usually first in line to say if you can\u2019t afford kids, don\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the EPA\u2019s clear rejection, E-Check opponents aren\u2019t giving up. They might appeal directly to Trump, hoping the administration\u2019s broader rollback of environmental regulations might eventually override the decision.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Northeast Ohio residents will continue making their biennial trips to E-Check stations\u2014a process Quinn noted \u201cisn\u2019t that inconvenient. Every two years, you got to drive in. It\u2019s free. They have centers at multiple places. Yeah, it\u2019s one of life\u2019s annoyances, but it\u2019s not a huge inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the discussion here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to full \u201cToday in Ohio\u201d episodes<\/a> where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ohio Republicans thought the Trump administration would rubber-stamp their plan to scrap vehicle emissions testing in Northeast Ohio,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-350844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}