EPA Excludes Repair Shops From Increased Emissions Reporting

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has commended the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its decision to exclude collision repair facilities from a proposal to increase required emissions reporting as it revises the Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR) regulation, according to a press release.

The Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) panel is a group gathered by the EPA to help develop the proposal and selected ASA as a Small Entity Representative (SER). ASA voiced the concerns of its members and provided insight to the panel on how it would affect the collision repair industry.

Though the ASA supports the EPA’s mission of maintaining adequate air quality, thousands of collision shops already share emissions data with the government each year. Much of the hazardous air pollutants (HAP) data that has been proposed to be added to the AERR is already shared by thousands of collision repair facilities with different government agencies. 

The EPA ultimately decided that of all the industries being looked at, the collision repair industry has the most small entities of any, and that the agency is still able to determine air quality accurately without adding an unnecessary burden onto small businesses.