Sun/Snap-On to avoid monopolistic restraint of trade in the centralized I/M (emissions inspection and maintainence) business. Thus, when major programs for centralized testing were up for bid, VTTI and Envirotest were bidding against each other. Next thing you know, there is a lawsuit, and, as part of the out-of-court settlement, 100% of the remote sensing consortium goes to Envirotest.

The politics have been just as curious as the business aspects. In 1989-90, we measured vehicle CO emissions close to the El Paso-Teller County Boundary. These measurements were intended to justify a proposed state law (subsequently enacted) requiring vehicles that commute into an I/M area to have an emission sticker. The measurements actually showed almost no difference between the emissions of vehicles with El Paso and Teller registrations.

This result (now repeated at many other locations) shocked the local establishment. The headline "State Pooh-Pooh's Auto Emissions Study" (Rocky Mountain News, Jan. 27, 1989) summarizes the reaction of the Colorado Department of Health. This reaction has been repeated many times by agencies whose cherished (and revenue producing) emission test programs have been found to be failures. The most recent example is from Minnesota.

Huel Scherrer and David Kittleson of the University of Minnesota studied the air quality before and after the imposition of a centralized emission testing program in Minnesota. The results (published as SAE 940302) showed no detectable change in the steady decline of emissions as newer cars entered the fleet. In their March 23, 1995, testimony to the U.S. Congress they said, "If we want to maintain public support for programs that claim to reduce air pollution, those programs must do what they claim in the real world, not just the virtual world of the (EPA) computer model."