New Hampshire Car Inspections Are Back, Lawmakers Seek Creative Ways Around Them

Just like the rest of us, New Hampshire has waited until the last possible second to do anything about its car inspections. After last year's vote to eliminate them, a federal judge issued an injunction on Wednesday, January 28, requiring the state to continue inspections for the foreseeable future, according to WMUR. Inspections were scheduled to end February 1, causing quite a conundrum for NH motorists who may, or may not, be due or overdue for inspection.

The injunction stems from a lawsuit claiming that the state is violating the Clean Air Act by ending inspections (ironic, considering that President Trump is pardoning people convicted of doing exactly that). It claims that the EPA must issue a waiver before an existing emissions testing program can be eliminated, a process that is currently underway but has not yet been completed. This lawsuit has been filed by Gordon-Darby, which, by complete coincidence, just happens to be the company that has administered New Hampshire's emission test program since 2004. Certainly continuing that income stream is in no way a motivating factor in filing this lawsuit.

It is likely that the Environmental "Protection" Agency, which has already gutted emission regulations and decided that emission cheating devices are perfectly okay, will grant New Hampshire's waiver, because who cares about the environment, anyway? The issue is that it hasn't yet, which, the lawsuit claims, requires the state to continue inspections as usual until that happens.

Like motorists struggling to get their crummy old cars to pass inspection, state Republican lawmakers are now looking for creative ways to get around the inspections that the Republican federal government still requires, reports NHPR. They hope to push the EPA to issue the waiver immediately, thwarting Gordon-Darby's argument for keeping inspections and allowing the state law to eliminate them to take effect.

If that doesn't happen, new legislation would defang existing laws meant to enforce inspections. Police would not be allowed to pull people over for expired inspection stickers. The maximum fine for driving without a valid sticker would be $1. Insurance companies would not be allowed to require a valid inspection before issuing insurance, a requirement that seems strange because New Hampshire is the only state that doesn't require insurance. Additionally, the same annual budget that eliminated inspections provides no funding for continuing them, whether required by federal law or not, adding yet another plot complication.

Meanwhile, NH motorists probably feel like they're watching Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck arguing over whether it's duck season or rabbit season. The situation is equally ridiculous, not knowing from one day to the next whether they need to get their cars inspected or not. The New Hampshire Department of Safety is deferring to the Attorney General's office, which has not yet issued any guidance to the public or law enforcement about what to do, perhaps because they're just as confused as everyone else. This is the sort of situation I'd expect to see in Massachusetts, not the so-called "Live Free or Die" state.