Illinois Renewing License Plate Stickers Without Requiring Vehicle Emissions Test
(CBS) -- You may not have to take your car in for an emissions test in order to get your license plate sticker renewed this year. The reason: the state budget.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot explains.
A secretary of state's office spokesman says that the Illinois EPA is going to be able to send out notices again soon to show that motorists have completed the necessary emissions test.
Motorist John Morris says it "doesn't make any sense at all" that Illinois license plate sticker renewals will take place without the required vehicle emissions test now. Budget cuts prompted the Illinois EPA to no longer send out test reminders.
"I disagree with everything so hopefully come election time something can change," he said.
Morris was among the handful of motorists at a North Side emissions testing facility that received a reminder and came for their emissions test.
"I just went in yesterday, to try out and pay for the sticker and I was able to do," said Sungoon Jun.
Jun still went and got the test done anyway.
"I like to follow the rules," he said.
Mark Templeton agrees. Templeton is the former director of the Missouri state EPA and the current director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
"It is really important to improve, the air quality in Cook County," Templeton said. "If these tests are not done we are not going to know which vehicles are emitting an excessive amount of pollution, so those vehicles won't be able to get fixed and that will impact our air quality in our area significantly."
While the Illinois EPA has not returned calls from CBS 2, the U.S. EPA has told us among other things they have asked the state EPA to tell them how long this new policy is going to be in place.
