(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Plant employees drive 2011 Ford Explorer vehicles off the assembly line at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant in Chicago, Dec. 1, 2010. The U.S. government’s road safety agency has closed a more than six-year investigation into Ford Explorer exhaust odors, determining that the SUVs don’t emit high levels of carbon monoxide and don’t need to be recalled. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) According to a release today in Harrisburg from the offices of State Representatives Roman Kozak (R-Beaver) and Joshua D. Kail (R-Beaver/Washington), the duo recently introduced a bill in Pennsylvania to end Beaver County’s participation in the Vehicle Emissions Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) program. If passed, this legislation would petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove Beaver County from this federal requirement even though the current I/M program is federally mandated. Kozak stated: “Today’s engines run cleaner and more efficiently than ever before, and the population of our region is less than when this federal mandate was passed. It makes zero sense that people who live on one side of the road in northern or eastern Beaver County have to pay emissions fees while their neighbors across the street do not have to pay because their property is in Lawerence County or Ohio. It’s a significant unnecessary expense to Beaver County residents, especially those on fixed incomes. Pennsylvania needs to petition the Federal Government to remove Beaver County from this outdated mandate.” Kail also stated: “This program creates a serious financial strain on Pennsylvanians. Between inspection fees and possible repairs to taking time off work, residents become inundated with unnecessary pressures. Removing Beaver County from this outdated process would provide deserved relief to those who find it difficult to make ends meet.”