Emissions testing to continue in northeast Ohio

COLUMBUS (AP) — The state has renewed the unpopular E-check vehicle emissions testing program in northeast Ohio for two more years.

Spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says state officials on Thursday approved an $11.55 million per year contract to continue E-check tests through June of 2011.

Motorists in the Cleveland and Akron areas are required to take their vehicles in every other year for the testing, which the state pays for.

Griesmer says officials had hoped new U.S. EPA air pollution standards would allow the state to replace E-check with something else. But the federal government still hasn’t determined whether the region meets the revised guidelines.