The state I live in (Illinois), has decided that it should do emissions testing on all passenger vehicles (never mind the amount of pollutants that trucks, trains, etc. put into the air).
I own a Volkswagen that is old, but new enough to be tested via the on-board diagnostics. The problem is that earlier in the year the secondary air injection pump went bad (a $1000 fix for a part that basically makes the catalytic converter more efficient for the first 90 seconds after a cold start, so let that be a warning to other VW owners, it‘s pretty common for this thing to fail). So, I had it replaced, as I definitely couldn‘t pass the emissions tests without it.
The big issue now is that before the emissions test can pass, the engine computer needs to report that it‘s tested all of the components of the emissions system. Some of these tests take many miles of driving, or certain environmental conditions (i.e. warm enough to create excess gas vapors in the fuel tank, which will be tough for me, since it‘s winter here).
Giving that working for MySQL, I work from home, the car in question hardly ever hits the street except to take me to the MySQL meetup once a month, or to the airport every three months or so.
However to get it ready (and according to my last attempt today, it‘s still not ready to be tested yet), I‘ve had to put in over 400 miles of non-required trips. Guess what. This car probably doesn‘t see that much driving most of the year.
So, this law that my car get tested for emissions has actually caused more emissions to be dumped into the environment than if I could‘ve gotten some kind of waiver for a low-mileage vehicle, or an extension to the testing deadline for the same reason.
We‘ll see if I‘m able to put enough miles on by January 20th to pass the test, otherwise the Illinois EPA sees it fit to revoke my drivers license, and according to the text on their website, there is no extension/appeal for this situation.