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With $18.50 vehicle emissions testing set to begin in Bexar County on Nov. 1, Republican county judge nominee Patrick Von Dohlen is blaming local officials for not doing more to oppose the federal designation that triggered the requirement.
The new requirement applies to most gasoline-powered vehicles between 2 and 24 years old.
At a news conference Tuesday, Von Dohlen said local officials failed to adequately oppose the designation and warned that working families could face costly repairs if their vehicles fail the emissions test.
"The city and the county could have spoken at numerous, different public hearings to say, 'this is not going to help Bexar County residents.' But nobody did. As far as to my knowledge, I am the only one that has."
Von Dohlen estimated drivers could pay at least $38 million a year in testing fees alone and said tens of thousands of vehicles are expected to fail emissions tests each year. According to Von Dohlen, repair costs could average about $1,500 for cars and $2,500 for trucks, with some owners of older vehicles facing repair bills that exceed the value of their cars.
The designation, however, was ultimately made by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Emissions-testing requirements are already in place in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and El Paso areas after those regions failed to meet federal ozone standards.
Democratic nominee Ron Nirenberg's campaign disputes Von Dohlen's criticism and provided Texas Public Radio with a letter the then-mayor sent to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on April 30, 2018.
In the letter, Nirenberg urged the EPA to maintain Bexar County's attainment status and argued that local governments, nonprofit organizations and private industry had spent more than 15 years working to reduce emissions.
The letter also cited state data showing that roughly 32% of the region's ozone pollution originated outside the San Antonio area and noted that air-quality improvements had been achieved even as the metropolitan area added more than 568,000 residents.
Some local officials and air-quality planners have debated emissions testing for decades. In the early 2000s, leaders in the Austin area adopted a voluntary emissions-testing program as part of their clean-air strategy, while San Antonio pursued other approaches. Today, Travis and Williamson counties remain in attainment, while Bexar County was ultimately downgraded to nonattainment status, bringing additional federal requirements, including emissions testing.
