With Duke Power and CP&L moving ahead with plans to spend $600 million or more to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from their coal-burning power plants, the easy part of the battle to improve air quality is North Carolina has been won. Now comes the hard part.

Statewide, only about half of the ozone-causing nitrogen oxide in the air comes from the power plants, according to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The other half comes out of the tailpipes of all the cars we drive. In urban areas, such as on Raleigh's Hillsborough Street or at the corner of Trade and Tryon in Charlotte, cars are responsible for as much as 90 percent of the ozone.

To reduce the automobile's share of ozone, the General Assembly passed the Ambient Air Quality Improvement Act of 1999. The legislation enhances and expands the state's current automobile emissions testing program, but many people aren't aware of the new law because implementation of the restrictions was delayed for several years. However, officials familiar with details of the legislation are bracing for a public backlash because this part of the state's drive for cleaner air will hit voters right where they live — in the front seats of their cars.

Since 1993, residents of the state's nine most urban counties — Cabarrus, Durham, Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Orange, Union and Wake — have been required to submit their cars for an annual emissions test. A vehicle safety inspection is required in the other 91 counties.

Beginning in 2003, the state will begin slowly expanding the number of counties where vehicle emissions testing is required, beginning with the more-populated and spreading into the less-populated counties. By 2006, emissions testing will be required in 48 counties that are home to 80 percent of all the cars and trucks on the road. The phase-in will follow this schedule:

July 1, 2003 - Catawba, Cumberland, Davidson, Iredell, Johnston and Rowan.
Jan. 1, 2004 - Alamance, Chatham, Franklin, Lee, Lincoln, Moore, Randolph and Stanly.
July 1, 2004 - Buncombe, Cleveland, Granville, Harnett and Rockingham.
Jan. 1, 2005 - Edgecombe, Lenoir, Nash, Pitt, Robeson, Wayne and Wilson.
July 1, 2005 - Burke, Caldwell, Haywood, Henderson, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry and Wilkes.
Jan. 1, 2006 - Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, New Hanover and Onslow.

At the same time, the legislature scrapped the current emissions test, in which a service station attendant sticks a “sniffer” up a car's tailpipe while it's running to measure emissions. Legislators learned that the test is ancient technology by current standards. It measures hydrocarbons — blue smoke — but doesn't measure the worst type of emissions, the ozone-causing nitrogen oxide. And it doesn't tell what's causing the problem.

In its place, the state will require inspection stations to buy computers that will run specialized software. The computer will connect to a car's on-board diagnostic (OBD) system to determine if the vehicle's vital systems are operating correctly. The idea is that if all of a car's engine systems are running right, it won't be belching out a lot of fumes.

Under the new OBD system of emissions testing, if a vehicle fails the test the computer identifies what needs to be repaired. Officials also say OBD testing can be performed more quickly and accurately.

All cars manufactured since 1996 have computer-chip powered OBDs that monitor engine performance and record malfunctions. By the time the new emissions testing system is rolled out in a couple of years, officials estimate that at least 90 percent of the vehicles on the road will have OBDs. At that time, pre-1996 cars won't be required to pass an emissions test.

A second prong of the state's attack on car-caused ozone is to change the kid of gasoline we buy. Beginning in 2004, only low-sulfur gasoline can be legally sold in the state. The specially-formulated gasoline will cost a few cents more per gallon. Only Georgia and California now require the sale of low-sulfur gasoline. Burning only low-sulfur gasoline will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 6,537 tons, state officials said.

“Motor vehicles account for about half of the ozone-forming emissions in North Carolina,” says Bill Holman, who was secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources when the legislation was adopted. “This new test will help us do a better job testing the air-pollution controls on cars and trucks, so we can reduce ozone levels. The new test also will be simpler to use, more effective at detecting problems, and less costly to consumers than other options.”

But no one yet knows how much drivers will be charged for the OBD emissions test. The legislation creating the program deferred that decision until more information could be gathered on exactly how much it will cost car repair shops and inspection stations to acquire the new equipment.

That decision is expected to become a major battle in this year's General Assembly.

Motorists are charged $19.40 in the nine counties where emissions-testing already is required, including the safety equipment inspection. The fee is $8.50 in the 91 counties where emissions testing isn't required.

Reggie Lester, president of the N.C. Independent Garage Owners Association, says inspections are a money-losing proposition for most of his members, but he said they continue doing the tests as a matter of customer convenience.

“The fee we have now is totally inadequate. We did studies that show the current program costs our members $33 per inspection for a combined safety and emissions test. Of the $19.40 they can charge for that test, $2.40 goes to the state, so they get $17, which is about half of what it costs them.”

The $2.40 that goes to the state is divided this way: $1.80 to the Division of Motor Vehicles, 35 cents to the state Division of Air Quality, 15 cents to the volunteer rescue/EMS fund and 10 cents to the rescue squad workers' relief fund

Lester, whose members perform the vast majority of all state-required safety and emissions tests, says his association was lobbying the General Assembly to raise the fees even before lawmakers decided to improve and expand the program.

“Our members were investing between $12,000 and $15,000 for the equipment to perform the current test. We're not sure what these new computers and software will cost to be able to perform the OBD test. I've heard a lot of different figures, but things always cost more than people say they will.”

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources is recommending a fee increase in the emissions test to “around $25,” according to Alan Klimek, the director of the department's Air Quality Division. But hardly any of that proposed $5.60 increase would go to the inspection station.

In one of his last acts as DENR secretary, Bill Holman wrote a Jan. 5 letter to Sen. Fountain Odom (D-Mecklenburg) and Rep. Pryor Gibson (D-Montgomery), the co-chairs of the Environment Review Commission, proposing significant increases in most parts of the fee that come to the state.

Right off the top, DENR recommends a $1 increase in the statewide safety-only inspection fee to $9.50. Residents of the 52 counties where emissions testing won't be required would pay this amount.

In the 42 emissions-testing counties, the $1.80 of the current fee that goes to the DMV would be raised to $3.85, money that would be used to hire inspectors to administer the program. DENR also recommends that the 35-cent portion of the current fee that goes to the Division of Air Quality be raised to $1. Separately, Holman said DENR is seeking an additional $1 million in funding to launch a PR campaign to educate the public about the expanded emissions-testing program, and an additional $3 million to support expanded community college training programs.

Further, Holman's letter to the Environment Review Commission co-chairs concludes that “DENR supports an increase in the emissions/safety fees for inspection stations” currently set at $17.

“We're going to have to set the fee at a level where the inspection station can at least break even or else they're going to get out of the business. And then it won't matter what kind of inspection program the state requires because there won't be anybody in the business to do the tests,” Lester says.

He adds that a fee on the higher end of “between $40 and $50” would be necessary to entice most current inspection stations to remain in the business after the new program takes effect. — Steve Tuttle

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