Texas Health & Safety Code - Section 382.202. Vehicle Emissions Inspection And Maintenance Program
Legal Research Home >
Texas Laws > Health & Safety Code > Texas Health & Safety Code - Section 382.202. Vehicle Emissions Inspection And Maintenance Program
§ 382.202. VEHICLE EMISSIONS INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE
PROGRAM. (a) The commission by resolution may request the Public
Safety Commission to establish a vehicle emissions inspection and
maintenance program under Subchapter F, Chapter 548,
Transportation Code, in accordance with this section and rules
adopted under this section. The commission by rule may establish,
implement, and administer a program requiring emissions-related
inspections of motor vehicles to be performed at inspection
facilities consistent with the requirements of the federal Clean
Air Act (42 U.S.C. Section 7401 et seq.) and its subsequent
amendments.
(b) The commission by rule may require emissions-related
inspection and maintenance of land vehicles, including testing
exhaust emissions, examining emission control devices and systems,
verifying compliance with applicable standards, and other
requirements as provided by federal law or regulation.
(c) If the program is established under this section, the
commission:
(1) shall adopt vehicle emissions inspection and
maintenance requirements for certain areas as required by federal
law or regulation; and
(2) shall adopt vehicle emissions inspection and
maintenance requirements for counties not subject to a specific
federal requirement in response to a formal request by resolutions
adopted by the county and the most populous municipality within the
county according to the most recent federal decennial census.
(d) On adoption of a resolution by the commission and after
proper notice, the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas
shall implement a system that requires, as a condition of obtaining
a safety inspection certificate issued under Subchapter C, Chapter
548, Transportation Code, in a county that is included in a vehicle
emissions inspection and maintenance program under Subchapter F of
that chapter, that the vehicle, unless the vehicle is not covered by
the system, be annually or biennially inspected under the vehicle
emissions inspection and maintenance program as required by the
state's air quality state implementation plan. The Department of
Public Safety shall implement such a system when it is required by
any provision of federal or state law, including any provision of
the state's air quality state implementation plan.
(e) The commission may assess fees for vehicle
emissions-related inspections performed at inspection or
reinspection facilities authorized and licensed by the commission
in amounts reasonably necessary to recover the costs of developing,
administering, evaluating, and enforcing the vehicle emissions
inspection and maintenance program. If the program relies on
privately operated or contractor-operated inspection or
reinspection stations, an appropriate portion of the fee as
determined by commission rule may be retained by the station owner,
contractor, or operator to recover the cost of performing the
inspections and provide for a reasonable margin of profit. Any
portion of the fee collected by the commission is a Clean Air Act
fee under Section 382.0622.
(f) The commission:
(1) shall, no less frequently than biennially, review
the fee established under Subsection (e); and
(2) may use part of the fee collected under Subsection
(e) to provide incentives, including financial incentives, for
participation in the testing network to ensure availability of an
adequate number of testing stations.
(g) The commission shall:
(1) use part of the fee collected under Subsection (e)
to fund low-income vehicle repair assistance, retrofit, and
accelerated vehicle retirement programs created under Section
382.209; and
(2) to the extent practicable, distribute available
funding created under Subsection (e) to participating counties in
reasonable proportion to the amount of fees collected under
Subsection (e) in those counties or in the regions in which those
counties are located.
(h) Regardless of whether different tests are used for
different vehicles as determined under Section 382.205, the
commission may:
(1) set fees assessed under Subsection (e) at the same
rate for each vehicle in a county or region; and
(2) set different fees for different counties or
regions.
(i) The commission shall examine the efficacy of annually
inspecting diesel vehicles for compliance with applicable federal
emission standards, compliance with an opacity or other
emissions-related standard established by commission rule, or both
and shall implement that inspection program if the commission
determines the program would minimize emissions. For purposes of
this subsection, a diesel engine not used in a vehicle registered
for use on public highways is not a diesel vehicle.
(j) The commission may not establish, before January 1,
2004, vehicle fuel content standards to provide for vehicle fuel
content for clean motor vehicle fuels for any area of the state that
are more stringent or restrictive than those standards promulgated
by the United States Environmental Protection Agency applicable to
that area except as provided in Subsection (o) unless the fuel is
specifically authorized by the legislature.
(k) The commission by rule may establish classes of vehicles
that are exempt from vehicle emissions inspections and by rule may
establish procedures to allow and review petitions for the
exemption of individual vehicles, according to criteria
established by commission rule. Rules adopted by the commission
under this subsection must be consistent with federal law. The
commission by rule may establish fees to recover the costs of
administering this subsection. Fees collected under this
subsection shall be deposited to the credit of the clean air
account, an account in the general revenue fund, and may be used
only for the purposes of this section.
(l) Except as provided by this subsection, a person who
sells or transfers ownership of a motor vehicle for which a vehicle
emissions inspection certificate has been issued is not liable for
the cost of emission control system repairs that are required for
the vehicle subsequently to receive an emissions inspection
certificate. This subsection does not apply to repairs that are
required because emission control equipment or devices on the
vehicle were removed or tampered with before the sale or transfer of
the vehicle.
(m) The commission may conduct audits to determine
compliance with this section.
(n) The commission may suspend the emissions inspection
program as it applies to pre-1996 vehicles in an affected county if:
(1) the department certifies that the number of
pre-1996 vehicles in the county subject to the program is 20 percent
or less of the number of those vehicles that were in the county on
September 1, 2001; and
(2) an alternative testing methodology that meets or
exceeds United States Environmental Protection Agency requirements
is available.
(o) The commission may not require the distribution of Texas
low-emission diesel as described in revisions to the State
Implementation Plan for the control of ozone air pollution prior to
February 1, 2005.
(p) The commission may consider, as an alternative method of
compliance with Subsection (o), fuels to achieve equivalent
emissions reductions.
(q) Fees collected under Subsection (e) that are
transferred to the credit of a subaccount of the clean air account
as required by Section 382.0622(e) may be appropriated only as
follows:
(1) not more than 70 percent of that money may be
appropriated to the commission to be made available to affected or
participating counties, as those terms are defined by Sections
382.201 and 382.301, for the purposes authorized by Section
382.217, in an amount that for each county is proportionate to the
total amount of fees collected by the county under Subsection (e) in
the preceding fiscal year; and
(2) not more than 30 percent of that money may be
appropriated to the commission to provide grants to projects in
affected or participating counties that the commission determines
would be eligible to receive grants under Subchapter C, Chapter
386.
(r) The commission may apply the same rules, standards, and
requirements for the award of a grant under Subsection (q) as the
commission applies to a grant awarded under Subchapter C, Chapter
386.
Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 678, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1989. Amended
by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 3, § 2.25, eff. Sept. 1,
1991; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 547, § 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1993;
Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 1, § 1, eff. Jan. 31, 1995; Acts 1995,
74th Leg., ch. 34, § 1, 9(1), (3), eff. May 1, 1995; Acts 1995,
74th Leg., ch. 76, § 11.157, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1997, 75th
Leg., ch. 165, § 30.207, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1997, 75th
Leg., ch. 333, § 73, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 1997, 75th Leg.,
ch. 1069, § 1, eff. June 19, 1997; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 965,
§ 15.02, eff. Sept. 1, 2002. Renumbered from V.T.C.A., Health &
Safety Code § 382.037 and amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch.
1075, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001. Amended by Acts 2003, 78th Leg.,
ch. 1276, § 10.008(a), eff. Sept. 1, 2003; Acts 2005, 79th Leg.,
ch. 958, § 2, eff. June 18, 2005.
Section: 382.066 382.085 382.111 382.112 382.113 382.115 382.201 382.202 382.203 382.204 382.205 382.206 382.207 382.208 382.209
Last modified: August 11, 2007
|
