Schansberg to celebrate 5th anniversary of VET’s demise

Schansberg to celebrate 5^th anniversary of VET’s demise

On Saturday, Dr. Eric Schansberg will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the end of “vehicle emission testing” (VET) in Jefferson County, Kentucky in 2003. (Soon afterwards, Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana ended their VET as well.)

The event is a party from 2:00-6:00—with a 3:00 press conference featuring multiple speakers at the home of Donna and Dick Mancini (719 Talon Place, Owl Creek sub-division in Louisville).

Dr. Schansberg did research on the benefits and costs of VET in Jefferson County, published articles on the subject, and testified before the relevant sub-committee of the Kentucky State Senate.

In his research, Dr. Schansberg found that the money, time, and pollution costs of VET were tremendous when the regulation was imposed uniformly on all vehicles. Newer vehicles rarely failed the test—and so, the dollar and time costs of the program were far greater than the modest improvement to the environment.

Dr. Schansberg did not categorically oppose all forms of VET. But he found that the uniform implementation led to inequities and vast inefficiencies. And he noted that the “waiver” provision limited the program’s ability to improve the environment. (Auto owners with failed cars could simply a certain amount of money without improving their car’s performance.)

Dr. Schansberg also argued that annual, stationary testing is prone to abuse (people can rig their cars to get through the test) and necessarily misses out on problem cars (those who didn’t live in the Louisville metro area and were not tested). Instead, he recommended “mobile (emission) testing” which is far cheaper per vehicle and far more effective in catching high-pollution cars.