New vehicle emissions inspections aim to improve Bexar County air quality

A new federal air quality requirement is aimed at reducing vehicle pollution in the San Antonio area, a change researchers say could help protect public health by targeting older cars that release more pollutants into the air.

Other major Texas counties already follow the requirement, which adds a vehicle emissions inspection. The inspection costs $18.50, and it’s required before you can renew your Texas DPS registration.

Kristen Brown, a University of Texas at San Antonio researcher studying air quality in San Antonio neighborhoods, said the inspections are focused on pollution that affects the air people breathe locally.

“The new inspections is really focused on that local air quality picture,” Brown said. “It is not like a greenhouse gas climate change issue. This is really something that is protecting our health in San Antonio. It is the air you personally are breathing.”

Brown is currently working to identify which San Antonio neighborhoods have the poorest air quality. Early research points to communities in downtown San Antonio and on the South Side.

She said finding and repairing even a small number of high-polluting vehicles could make a meaningful difference.

“If you can just find a couple of vehicles that were really contributing way more than their share, that can have a big contribution,” Brown said.

Federal regulators also limit how much pollution industrial plants can release into the air. Brown said researchers are also looking at the role data centers may play in smog pollution.

She said the exact impact is still being studied, including whether data centers use on-site generators or draw electricity from the grid, and where that electricity is produced.

For now, Brown said San Antonio’s air quality is not among the worst, especially for the country’s seventh-largest city. But she said there is still room for improvement as researchers continue tracking pollution sources and their impact on local neighborhoods.

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