•HCON 309 IH
percent of in-use vehicles cause 50 percent of the pollu-
tion;
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 tam-
pered 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 mo-
bile source pollution;
Whereas there is little evidence that a newer fleet in and of
itself would be a significantly cleaner fleet; new cars be-
come 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 auto-
mobile emissions, and detrimental to our economy;
Whereas research indicates that an effective way to locate
gross polluters and locate cheaters is through on-road re-
mote sensing of vehicle emissions;
Whereas remote sensing can make thousands of more meas-
urements 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 suf-
ficient in identifying carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons;
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initial findings indicate it will be equally effective for ni-
tric 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 util-
ity 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 Agen-
cy 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 se-
lective Inspection and Maintenance program. Such selec-
tive 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
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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 central-
ized 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 Environ-
mental Protection Agency’s mobile source emission
models.
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