When New Hampshire state lawmakers this year scrapped an annual car inspection requirement, supporters hailed it as a straightforward win for consumers. But the requirement’s demise also carries a broader ripple effect: prodding the state to exit a regional smog control compact.
In a draft petition released last week, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services sought EPA’s permission to withdraw from the Ozone Transport Commission, the congressionally chartered body created decades ago to deal with the Northeast’s stubborn smog problem. For member states, a vehicle emissions inspection program is a mandatory part of the regimen for curbing smog-forming pollution from cars and other sources.
Dropping out of the commission is a prerequisite to proceeding with repeal of the inspection program, according to New Hampshire officials who say that the move will not worsen air quality inside or outside the Granite State’s borders.
If, as expected, EPA grants the petition, it would make New Hampshire the first state to fully withdraw from the commission since its founding as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. While EPA in 2022 agreed to excise much of inland Maine from the commission’s territory, the state’s coast — where the bulk of its population lives — remains covered.
