Earl Blumenauer: “As Governor-elect, Bush opposed new vehicle emissions testing programs that had been designed and contracted by the…”

“As Governor-elect, Bush opposed new vehicle emissions testing programs that had been designed and contracted by the State to implement the 1990 Clean Air Act. He called it onerous and inconvenient. As Governor in 1995, he worked out a deal with his legislature to overturn the centralized inspections, because it was too inconvenient. Instead, the decentralized system, similar to the old system except it costs more, the tests were less accurate, and it was easier to evade. Now we are in a situation. Dallas, for instance, is in noncompliance. His response in the case of Dallas was to argue with EPA to change how they were testing the methodology, not clean it up. I think we can actually expect in a Bush Presidency, if there should continue to be a Republican Congress, that that would happen. I remember the bad old days before we had a Federal Clean Air Act, and as a concerned graduate student at the University of Oregon, went to a meeting with people concerned about pollution from a local company.”