Emissions testing doesn't make sense
Ever get stuck behind a smelly bus in traffic or boxed in by pungent emitting trucks during the rush hour?
Those pollutant vehicles aren't even required to submit to the vehicle emissions test. You're probably glad to do your part to clean up the air, but do you really know the whole story here?
The catalytic converter, an invention that has sharply reduced smog from cars, has now become a significant and growing cause of global warming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers have suspected for years that converters rearrange the nitrogen-oxygen compounds to form nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas.
Cars and trucks, most fitted with catalytic converters, produce nearly half of that nitrous oxide. An EPA study showed that nitrous oxide is one of a few gases for which emissions are increasing rapidly. Collectively known as greenhouse gases, they trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is more than 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide that is warming the atmosphere, according to experts.
Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is not regulated because the Clean Air Act was written in 1970 to control smog, not global warming. We can't be pushing forward trying to reduce smog while making the global warming problem worse. I propose a halt to vehicle emissions testing until a level playing field is legislated. Right now it's a catch twenty-two.
Randy F. Gollay
Buffalo Grove