“This program is wasting people’s time and money,” said Renfroe. He said Weld and Larimer counties should be exempt unless there is reliable data pointing toward a need for the program.

“The air is clean, and audits are showing that the program is not living up to its intended results,”  said Renfroe.

The pending measure will resemble Renfroe’s and Vaad’s House Bill 11-1082, which failed to pass in the 2011 session. It would have repealed legislation passed in 2010 expanding the Denver metro area’s long-standing and often-criticized auto emissions-testing program into Weld and Larimer counties.

The program requires each vehicle over four years old to undergo a tailpipe-and-treadmill test at state-designated garages operated by a contractor, sometimes requiring hours-long waits by motorists during peak periods.

Opposition to the program is far from unanimous, however, with Democrats even in Larimer and Weld counties typically supporting it.

Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collin, said earlier this year that erring on the side of caution when health issues come into play is the more prudent path despite any inconveniences or costs to motorists.

“We want to make sure that we run the program so that it’s not over-burdensome—especially in these hard economic times—but also look at public health issues,” said Kefalas.

The emissions program also employs random, drive-by tests, conducted by roadside monitors, as a backup to the mandatory tailpipe tests. However, the state auditor recently determined that the roadside monitors can yield false positives for dirty emissions. The Legislative Audit Committee decided earlier this week to advance legislation that would limit the roadside testing to identifying clean vehicles only. That way, motorists whose vehicles fail the random tests still can go to one of the program’s regular testing stations and get a fresh test. Under current law, owners of vehicles that happen to drive by one of the monitors and get a clean bill of health may renew their vehicle registration without having to take a regular tailpipe test.

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Rep. Glenn Vaad, R-Mead, who sponsored similar legislation last spring, is having his proposal to suspend the testing drafted by legislative staffers for introduction in the 2012 legislative session.

“It made sense (during the spring 2011 session), and it makes even more sense now,” said Vaad.

Vaad says another year of data has yielded little to suggest the program should continue although controversy over the numbers themselves,  and the need for the testing, suggest the bill will again meet with considerable opposition.

“It certainly looks like it was a revenue issue, not a clean-air issue, since the county is already in compliance with EPA standards,” said Vaad. “Why continue the program when  the monitoring shows that there is not a problem?.

House Bill 1082, sponsored in the 2011 session by Vaad and Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, would have repealed legislation passed only a year earlier by a Democratic-led legislature  expanding the Denver metro area’s long-standing and often-criticized auto emissions-testing program into Weld and Larimer counties.

That program requires each vehicle over four years old to undergo a tailpipe-and-treadmill test at state-designated garages operated by a contractor, sometimes requiring hours-long waits by motorists during peak periods.

Vaad’s new proposed measure, like last year’s, will allow for the program to be reinstated should air-quality numbers breach the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable threshold in ground level ozone.

The threshold for emissions is currently .075 by EPA standards, with measurements in the Greeley and Fort Collins areas from 3 monitors averaging out to .071 on up to .072 on a 3-year rolling average—the method by which the levels are calculated.

Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway says the testing, which he estimates costs motorists in Weld County $5 million annually, is spinning the wheels  of citizens needlessly and producing negligible results given that newer vehicles rarely fail the test and older vehicles are being phased out by sheer age.

“Why are we making our citizens go through this?” asks Conway. “This program doesn’t do anything to reduce ozone. We’re already in compliance, and it is costing people valuable time and money.”

Yet, Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, of Larimer County, who voted against suspending the program last year, says he has not changed his mind.  Kefalas says he disagrees with an interpretation of the numbers that suggests the vehicle testing isn’t warranted and that health concerns should take precedence.

“It’ a matter of how you look at the data,” says Kefalas. “There’s still legitimate public health concerns, particularly for those who are most vulnerable to air quality such as those with asthma.”

According to Lucinda Smith, Senior Environmental Planner with the City of Fort Collins, the numbers have  measured up to .080 in the west Fort Collins area.

The EPA, which takes a look at the standards every five years, is due to review the thresholds in 2013. There was talk of lowering the threshold to .070, earlier than 2013, but the agency recently decided to put off the decision until the next five-year meeting.

As a way to address some of the cost issues of continuing the program, Kefalas says he is considering legislation seeking to clarify and to expand on what he says is a little-known provision in the program that provides need-based funding for repairs to vehicles failing the test.  Balance is key says Kefalas.

“We want to make sure that we run the program so that it’s not over-burdensome—especially in these hard economic times—but also look at public health issues,” he said.

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House Bill 1082, sponsored by Rep. Glenn Vaad, R-Mead, and Sens. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, and Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, would have exempted Larimer and Weld residents from the much-unloved testing program—which uses treadmills to screen vehicles—as long as ozone remains below levels deemed harmful. The proposal was killed on a party-line vote in the Senate Agriculture and Natural Energy Committee.

Renfroe told the committee the testing program puts people through unnecessary hoops when the data shows that the counties meet ozone level standards. Measurements taken since the program was expanded to Larimer and Weld counties show compliance with air standards.

“Why would we want to burden our citizens with the cost in time and money for something that they are already in compliance with?” asked Renfroe.

Lundberg said the testing program disproportionally affects those with less income.

“As is often the case with taxes and fees we put on vehicles, it’s a regressive tax on those who can afford it the least,” said Lundberg.  “These are dollars that families need for their own needs. If the science isn’t there to show the need, they shouldn’t be paying for the program.”

Speaking in opposition to the bill was Garry Kaufman, of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s air pollution control division. Kaufman told the panel that harmful emissions are not necessarily confined to geographical areas.

“This is not just a Denver problem. Ozone is a regional one not a localized one.  It affects the whole area not just where the emissions are,” said Kaufman.

Committee chair Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, said she could not support the suspension of the testing in light of the regional nature of air pollution.

“Colorado has significant air-quality challenges and collectively we need to resolve that,” said Schwartz.

Renfroe countered with a more blunt assessment of the issue.

“This is a screwed up program—let’s be honest about this,” said Renfroe.

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Renfroe says vehicle-emissions testing is not only unnecessary but also unpopular among his constituents, who have been petitioning local officials to gather more data before moving ahead. Leading the charge against the program are the Weld County commissioners, who are backing Renfroe’s effort. The first-term lawmaker anticipates that Larimer County commissioners will be supportive as well.

“The air in those counties is actually clean and below the standards set by the EPA for 2013,” Renfroe said. “We’re being forced into this program because Denver’s air is not clean, and this is one way to (raise Denver’s average) for a better air-quality rating.”

Today, Renfroe and Greeley Republican Rep. Glenn Vaad introduced Senate Bill 95, which would repeal last year’s legislation expanding the air-quality program. That measure, sponsored by Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins,  and Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, will usher in a vehicle-testing regimen long familiar to Denver area motorists, who can face hours-long waits for their vehicles to undergo treadmill tests at designated facilities before they can renew their auto registration.

However, another Greeley lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Jim Riesberg, maintains that the program should move forward despite data indicating current compliance with the EPA standards, and he said he stands behind his vote for last year’s bill expanding the policy into Weld and Larimer.

“I voted for the bill last year after meeting with the people at Air Quality Control and felt that this was something that we need to do,” said Riesberg, who acknowledged his own county commissioners are adamantly opposed to the program.

Riesberg points to more stringent requirements that the EPA will put into effect in 2013, and he says those could moot today’s clean-air standards.

“More comprehensive testing that includes detection of previously untested pollutants may or may not find us in compliance,” Riesberg said.