By:  Culberson                                        H.B. No. 1616
       73R3070 JJT-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to automobile emissions testing devices.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 142, Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on
    1-5  Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended
    1-6  by adding Subsection (d-2) and amending Subsection (e) to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (d-2)  The Public Safety Commission, for any county in this
    1-9  state for which the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
   1-10  has adopted a resolution requesting the Department to institute
   1-11  such a program, shall establish a program using automated
   1-12  automobile emissions testing devices to assess the exhaust
   1-13  emissions of stationary or moving vehicles for pollution control
   1-14  purposes.  The emissions testing program may use automated or
   1-15  remotely activated devices that are able to assess the quality,
   1-16  content, or opacity of motor vehicle exhaust emissions and that are
   1-17  linked to a camera designed to photograph the license plate of a
   1-18  vehicle that emits exhaust that fails the testing criteria of the
   1-19  device.  The Public Safety Commission by mail may issue to the
   1-20  owner of the vehicle a notice of violation, a citation, or a demand
   1-21  that the vehicle photographed by an automated emissions testing
   1-22  device report to an emissions inspection station.  The Texas
   1-23  Natural Resource Conservation Commission shall adopt criteria
   1-24  consistent with the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (Pub.
    2-1  L. No. 101-549) and its subsequent amendments for the use of
    2-2  automated devices under this subsection.
    2-3        (e)  The Public Safety Commission shall adopt standards for
    2-4  emissions-related inspection criteria consistent with Texas Natural
    2-5  Resource Conservation Commission and federal requirements
    2-6  applicable to a county in which such a program, pursuant to
    2-7  Subsections (d), <and> (d-1), and (d-2) of this section, is
    2-8  established.
    2-9        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-10        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.