Four months after urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move quickly to end the Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) program for Anchorage, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich today applauded the announcement that I/M will no longer be required effective February 9.

“We’ve known for some time that the I/M program is no longer needed as newer, cleaner running cars replace the older models,” Begich said. “The Anchorage community started asking to end the program way back in 2007, and I’m happy to see this unnecessary, federal mandate come to a final end.”

In 2007, when Begich was mayor of Anchorage, he supported a move to end the I/M program and the Anchorage Assembly voted to scrap it. A later Assembly reinstated the program until 2010, when the Assembly voted again to end it.

In September 2011, when it became public that the program shut down for Anchorage was still lingering in the federal bureaucracy, Sen. Begich called EPA Region 10 Director, Dennis McLarren, and urged him to end the program as soon as possible.

The Anchorage area has not violated federal clean air regulations since 1997, and officials have said Carbon Monoxide levels continue to decline with newer cars on the road.

Here is the published Federal Register:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-10/pdf/2012-341.pdf

Source: Office of Senator Begich