Hearing set for proposed Colorado vehicle emissions inspection program changes

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission recently heard the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Air Pollution Control Division’s request for a public hearing.

According to information from the Automotive Service Association (ASA), the hearing was approved at the public meeting and was set for December. The ozone action plan and the state implementation plan will be discussed, and the division will propose changes to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s new ozone standards to reduce volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.

Currently pending is a Request for Rulemaking Hearing that will be hosted by the Air Quality Control Commission and held Oct. 16. The commission will deliberate proposed revisions to the vehicle emissions inspection program such as revised visual inspection procedures and methodology for model year vehicles from 1996 and newer, and the elimination of obsolete provisions.

At a public hearing in March, the CDPHE finalized changes for its vehicle emissions inspection and maintenance (I/M) program. While other changes have been proposed and are currently pending, revisions in tailpipe emissions standards for Denver have been completed.

Donny Seyfer, president of the Automotive Service Association of Colorado, supports these changes.

“Speaking on behalf of the ASA members who have been involved with this revision to our clean air program, we are delighted to see it reach this point of implementation," Seyfer says. "The Colorado Department of Health has always been proactive in seeking input from repair professionals prior to making policy and we feel that their team did a great job in communicating their needs in emissions reduction and gathering input from us. Many ASA-Colorado members took active roles in both the policy discussions as well as the technical meetings. Motorists are well-served when government and repair professionals work together on programs like this.”

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