The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s major move to end the regulation of greenhouse gases from cars and trucks won’t change requirements to get emissions tests in southeastern Wisconsin.
On Feb. 12, the EPA repealed what is known as the endangerment finding, a monumental 2009 finding that six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, pollute the air and harm human health. The finding allowed those greenhouse gases to be regulated under the Clean Air Act, setting the stage for regulations on emissions from vehicles, power plants and the oil and gas sector.
Its repeal immediately ended regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. vehicles, and environmental advocates say it will pave the way for the Trump administration to upend federal authority on mitigating climate change. A group of health and environmental organizations from across the country, including Clean Wisconsin, have challenged the repeal in court.
The Trump administration’s argument essentially is that Congress has not authorized EPA to regulate these emissions, and any effort to do so would be costly and futile.
Journal Sentinel readers asked whether this decision affect the requirement in Milwaukee County and throughout southeastern Wisconsin to get an emissions test before renewing your license plate.
The change to the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases is not related to the emissions testing requirement and won’t impact it, said Craig Czarnecki, air management outreach coordinator with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The Clean Air Act mandates emissions testing programs in areas of the country that aren’t meeting air quality standards for ozone, which forms when pollutants from cars and other sources react with sunlight. Ozone can cause health problems, particularly for children and elderly adults, and people with lung diseases like asthma.
Spots along the Lake Michigan shoreline aren’t meeting those standards, which is why emissions tests are required in Milwaukee, Washington, Waukesha, Kenosha, Racine, Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties.
The goal of this program, according to a 2021 guidance document from the EPA, is to make sure that cars’ emission controls are still operating correctly as they age. That’s separate from any regulations that the endangerment finding would have given the EPA the authority to set on new vehicles.
The emissions testing requirement still receives many a grumble from those who have to do it. Late last year, a group of state lawmakers asked Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to work toward ending it, citing the small number of vehicles today that fail emissions tests versus in the past. Moreover, much of the air pollution across the region drifts northward from the Chicago area.
But for now, it’s still a requirement that must be met.
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which oversees the emissions testing program, confirmed that people need to continue to comply and that the EPA’s endangerment finding repeal does not affect the program.
Madeline Heim covers health and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump has erased greenhouse gas finding. But emissions testing stays.
Reporting by Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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