Tailpipe Testing Often Wrong

A newly released legislative audit reports that the use of remote sensing to reduce air pollution from tailpipes in the Denver metro area is failing, threatening clean air and our health.

An article in today's Denver Post reports that, "auditors found that many cars that were "clean-screened" - 21 percent of the vehicles they surveyed - failed the traditional emission test. And more than half of the vehicles that failed the mobile test passed the screening when the driver went to a traditional facility." The results show that the use of remote sensing is failing to clean our air and keep our communities healthy.

Even more disturbing though is that the Colorado legislature has mandated that remote sensing be the primary method of testing tailpipes in Denver. In other words, the legislature has mandated ineffective tailpipe testing.

Unfortunately, this flawed mandate is now driving the Air Quality Control Commission to consider changes to Denver's tailpipe testing this Thursday. Despite the recent audit, the Commission is likely to approve more extensive use of remote sensing, raising serious questions over the fate of Denver's air quality.

The overall concern through all this is that current tailpipe testing is inconvenient and costly to motorists. To be honest, the inconvenience of testing tailpipes is nothing compared to the inconvenience of smoggy skies and kids with asthma. With Denver on the verge of violating federal health standards for ozone, the last thing we need is an ineffective tailpipe testing program.