Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Wisconsin / March 3, 2007
Air swap could fund new train
My briefcase, which was up to about 20 pounds with stuff I meant to read on the bus, got a good cleaning the other day. Goodbye to the year-old essay from the Weekly Standard and expired Motrin and notes for a column published months ago.
My aching shoulder had been bearing the weight of my history.
We all sometimes carry unnecessary baggage. A couple of state lawmakers are wondering whether that might apply to Milwaukee drivers’ biennial nuisance, the emissions test.
Right now, taxpayers spend more than $13 million a year on the program. “It’s not doing as much for emissions as it should,” says state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale).
He and state Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) have an alternate idea. Our air, which has been improving, now meets federal standards for ozone. Gov. Jim Doyle has said he’ll ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to certify that. State regulators say this won’t change vehicle inspections.
But suppose, say Stone and Plale, the state used the money instead to pay for the planned train from Milwaukee to Kenosha. That’s about $10 million a year, says Stone, for new transit that presumably would cut driving. If, like me, you doubt it would cut driving much, at least it would try it with money we’re already paying.
State regulators say the testing cuts pollutants by about 13% on hot days. They derive this from a federal computer model of car exhaust.
Others disagree. “Most of the money in these programs is spent testing very clean cars,” says Joel Schwartz, who studies emissions for the American Enterprise Institute.
Cars are being made cleaner and usually staying that way, thanks to onboard computers. About 70% of Wisconsin’s tests now amount to simply reading a car’s computer. That figure is rising, since every vehicle made since 1996 monitors its own exhaust. Nat