Millions of Pennsylvania drivers could catch a break on their annual vehicle inspections if a bill winding its way through the state Legislature becomes law — but don’t hold your breath.
Senate Bill 1298, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria, calls for the removal of all 25 counties, including Allegheny and Westmoreland, from the program that requires automobile emissions testing. The legislation also would forbid adding any counties to the program.
“People are being squeezed from every direction, and the last thing they should be forced to bankroll are outdated mandates that do nothing but drain their wallets,” Langerholc said in a statement after the bill passed the Senate. “If a mandate doesn’t serve the public anymore, it has no business siphoning money from working families.”
The bill essentially would leave only annual safety inspections for most vehicles. It was approved May 6 in the state Senate and sent to the House’s transportation committee on May 7 for consideration.
Local opinions
The bill sparked mixed reaction from local inspection stations.
“This isn’t the first time (politicians have) tried to do this,” said Cody Schuster, owner of Schuster Automotive in Harrison. “It happens every few years.”
Schuster has owned his shop on Freeport Road since 2017. He purchased his own emissions testing machine in 2022 for $5,800 and charges $46 for an emissions test.
Schuster said the biggest impact would fall on smaller, independently owned garages that purchased emissions testing equipment. Larger garages lease their emissions machines.
“It would affect business, but it’s not going to put anyone out of business,” Schuster said about the potential exit of the emissions test. “I don’t think it’s ever going away.”
In addition to the cost of buying the emission testing machines, they can be expensive to maintain.
Schuster said, when something breaks on the machine, his mechanics aren’t allowed to touch it and instead have to contact the state Department of Transportation with a repair request. The state then sends someone to fix the machine, but it’s the local station that pays for it. Schuster said a minor fix last year cost him $400.
In Greensburg, Lug Nutz garage owner Brian Baughman said doing away with emissions testing would affect his shop somewhat, “but it’s not going to stop anyone from making an inspection appointment. It’s just one element of the state inspections.”
Baughman agreed that the emissions analyzers can be costly to maintain.
“I just had a pin break on one of our connectors, and it was $1,000 just for that part,” he said. “A lot of times, we’ll purchase a yearly $1,000 warranty that covers your costs when something breaks.”
Mike Toney, an auto technician at Shamey’s Service in New Kensington, doubts the test will ever be nixed.
“It’s a money maker for us,” he said. “It’s a money maker for the state.”
The 25 counties that require testing account for 75% of the state’s population. Roughly 6 million vehicles go through testing or are at least required to be tested in Pennsylvania, according to Drive Clean PA. Toney said the state receives $1.80 for each test submission to update individual vehicles’ inspection status. That’s almost $11 million per year for state coffers.
“I don’t see it going anywhere,” Toney said about the test. “(Politicians have) been trying to get rid of it for years.”
While Shamey’s leases the shop’s emissions machine, it still has to pay the state $80 every two years to be recertified as an emissions tester. Shamey’s charges $40 for an emissions test.
Broader picture
Toney said, in the next decade, the test may become obsolete.
“A lot of new cars run cleaner,” he said. “New cars have monitors and sensors for everything. As soon as something goes wrong, it tells you.”
That was the opinion of state senators who supported the bill to eliminate the tests.
In addition to cost savings for drivers, Senate supporters of the bill point to massively more efficient gasoline engines in modern vehicles and the upswing in electric vehicle popularity. The combination, Langerholc believes, is rapidly eliminating the need for emission testing.
Even if the bill fails in the state House, some say it could be a catalyst for a broader look at the state’s vehicle inspection program and how it can be changed to take into account the higher efficiency of modern vehicles.
“A standalone bill is interesting, but we should be looking at the overall inspection process to update with current vehicle production standards,” said state Rep. Joe McAndrew, D-Penn Hills.
McAndrew, a member of the House’s transportation committee, which will take up the Senate bill, said it’s likely to be updated with multiple changes before being sent to the House floor for a vote.
“I don’t know if this is the bill that will end up being used in that manner,” he said. “I do think it would be nice to have updated standards.”
He said a comprehensive review of annual vehicle inspections is “definitely needed” to look at what actually fits modern vehicle concerns.
Langerholc sponsored similar legislation to address the emissions program in 2025. While it was approved in the Senate, it didn’t make it past the House.
“It is beyond time that the House of Representatives bring vehicle emissions reform to a vote and give Pennsylvania motorists much needed relief,” Langerholc said in a statement.
The need for at least a review of state inspection standards even has some support within the environmental community, though most groups remain steadfast in their support for emission testing.
John Baillie, senior attorney with the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), said there are many reasons the state needs to continue emission testing, but he agrees a comprehensive study about how modern vehicle emissions affect the environment could be valuable.
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970 and gave the federal Environmental Protection Agency legal authority to regulate pollution from cars and other forms of transportation. According to the EPA, new passenger vehicles are 98% to 99% cleaner for most tailpipe pollutants compared to the 1960s. Fuels are cleaner, lead has been eliminated from gasoline and sulfur levels are more than 90% lower than they were prior to regulation.
“The inspection program (in Pennsylvania) is based on emissions levels from the ’90s. The senators are well within their right to question how effective the tests are,” Baillie said.
Health concerns
In a May 20 statement, the American Lung Association urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly not to move forward with the bill.
“Rather than eliminating well-established public health protection, lawmakers should be looking to strengthen inspections and reduce the negative health impacts related to vehicle emissions,” said Lance Boucher, American Lung Association’s eastern division assistant vice president.
He said 17 of the 25 counties currently covered by the emissions testing program received at least one D or F grade in the association’s 2026 State of the Air report for particle pollution or ozone.
“The nearly 136,000 kids with asthma and 429,000 adults with COPD living in those counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution deserve stronger — not weaker — protections to make sure that the air they breathe improves and does not worsen their lung disease,” Boucher said in an email.
Jefferson Mixell, respiratory therapist with Pennsylvania Society for Respiratory Care, echoed those concerns.
“Many newer cars may routinely pass these tests easily, but that does not mean the program lacks value,” Mixell said in an email to TribLive.
Mixell is concerned about any policy that could negatively impact air quality, particularly those with respiratory conditions, and people who are highly sensitive to air pollution and poor environmental air quality.
“Emissions from vehicles really do make a difference,” Mixell said, citing a 2021 NASA-funded study of air quality during the covid pandemic that demonstrated how closely transportation activity and air quality are connected.
Researchers found that nitrogen dioxide, a common air pollutant, dropped by roughly 10% to 35% in major U.S. cities during periods of reduced traffic and travel during the pandemic.
“Pennsylvania already faces air quality challenges in several regions, including parts of Western Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. Any reduction in emissions oversight raises concerns about the potential impact on public health, especially for children, older adults and individuals with chronic respiratory disease,” Mixell said.
Baillie, of GASP, said the federal government, not state lawmakers, likely is holding the trump card on the matter anyway.
He said Pennsylvania is part of the federally mandated Northeast Ozone Transport Region, where emissions testing is required under the Clean Air Act. The region stretches from Maine to Virginia and was created to combat widespread ground-level ozone.
The state “has to take whatever they come up with to the EPA to be approved before it becomes official,” he said.
Baillie said his and other environmental groups likely would consider suing the state under the Clean Air Act should Pennsylvania decide to do away with emission testing.
TribLive staff writers Angelina Jones and Patrick Varine contributed.