The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will allow New Hampshire to end its vehicle emissions inspection program, overturning a lower court judge who had found the state was violating the Clean Air Act.
The showdown is part of a broader effort to pull the Granite State out of the Ozone Transport Region, a collection of states subject to stronger rules for reducing smog-forming pollution from cars and trucks.
New Hampshire’s Legislature last year ended the state’s emissions and safety inspection program as of Jan. 31 of this year. The emissions program is part of New Hampshire’s state implementation plan (SIP), its blueprint for meeting and maintaining federal air quality standards.
The vendor that had always run New Hampshire’s inspection program, Gordon-Darby, sued last fall after the state warned it would terminate the vendor’s contract early and began promoting the end of the program, which caused revenue to dip as drivers decided not to renew.
