Blumenthal: Emissions Plan May Be Illegal

HARTFORD (AP) — The state Department of Motor Vehicles may be violating the law by requiring some cars to receive emissions tests in 2005 and again in 2006, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday.

The state emissions tests are supposed to be conducted every other year.

But about 640,000 cars and small trucks missed tests while the program was suspended between April 22 and November 12, 2004. The DMV decided to schedule those vehicles for $20 tests in consecutive years to put the program back on schedule, DMV spokesman Bill Seymour told the Republican-American of Waterbury on Monday.

“We have to make up for that and get back to our regular cycle,” he said.

But Blumenthal said that state law sets a $10 limit on annual emissions tests and $20 for a biennial test.

The law does not seem to allow the state to require motorists to pay $20 in consecutive years, just because they missed an earlier test, he said.

“It may be administratively convenient and financially more profitable, but it seems legally problematic and probably unfair as well,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal likened it to a patient missing his annual physical, and being required by a doctor to take two the next year.

“There are real fundamental questions as to whether this system is fair and wise as a matter of policy,” he said.

But Jim Valerio, program manager for Agbar Technologies Inc, which designed the emissions system, said the test schedule was included in a settlement between his firm and the state.

He said in a statement Tuesday that Blumenthal’s office signed off on the settlement. He also said the schedule and fees are consistent with state law.

Blumenthal disagreed with Valerio.

“We never signed off on the practice of consecutive billing that’s been adopted,” the attorney general said. “The settlement was approved by my office, but not annual billing at $20 per test.”

Connecticut’s revamped emissions testing system, which switched from state-run centers to private garages in the fall of 2003, was shut down a year ago because of computer software glitches that caused inaccurate readings.

In some cases, cars were flunked when they should not have been, and some owners paid for unnecessary repairs.

Seven garage inspectors were also arrested last fall and accused of fraudulently passing vehicles that had not met exhaust standards.

The emissions system, which was designed and implemented by Chicago-based Agbar, was restarted in November and “is running as it should now,” Seymour said.

The state would not get the $12.8 million in additional funds from the affected vehicles because the additional $20 fee would be shared between the testing garage and Agbar, Seymour said.