CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Ohio budget may be over 5,000 pages, but it’s a 61-word run-on sentence that is capturing the attention of Northeast Ohio motorists. The budget opens the door for the Trump Administration to end Ohio’s E-Check program, should the Environmental Protection Agency sign off on it.
The sentence reads “if the United States environmental protection agency determines that the motor vehicle inspection and maintenance program implemented in accordance with this section is not necessary for the state or any area of the state to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, the director shall immediately discontinue the program and take any actions necessary to effectuate the termination of the program.”
It essentially puts the fate of E-Check in the hands of the agency that mandated it in the 1990s, in an effort to get the state to comply with the Clean Air Act.
The program only impacts Northeast Ohio drivers for the two-year emissions inspection is only required in Cuyahoga County and the six surrounding it: Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit.
State Rep Bill Roemer of Summit County has been pushing for years for the elimination of the program.
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He tells News 5 the cars of today are not the cars of the 90s.
"Since 1995 as you know the amount of pollution coming out of tailpipes has declined between 95 and 97%,” Roemer said. “And the air in Northeast Ohio actually met the Federal guidelines that were established. But what happened? In 2015 the U.S. EPA said guess what we're going to change the guidelines. They moved the goalposts on us. They made them even more stringent. So we are meeting the guidelines that were mandated when E-Check was initially imposed.”
Roemer said that the new head of the EPA in the Trump Administration, Lee Zeldin, has already eliminated around 30 comparable programs and is hopeful they will take a look at E-Check.
In a statement to News 5, an EPA spokesperson said.
“EPA is committed to working with Ohio to achieve the state’s air quality goals while growing the economy. This means cooperating closely with Ohio and all states to ensure Clean Air Act plans are in place in a timely way to continue improving air quality without imposing undue costs or red tape.”
