Emissions testing in GA is done by private businesses that are licensed by the state.
It's 100% hogwash. Over 95% of the vehicles pass.
It's only for 1996 and up (OBD-II connectors).
It's only on passenger, non-commercial vehicles (3/4 ton and up are exempt)
That 1984 Hooptie in front of you spewing 19 lbs of "carbon" into the air every 2.3 miles isn't affected. My pristinely-maintained vehicle is.
Want me to become a fan and think it's doing something? How about we do it once every 36 months for vehicles 3-15 years old. I could get behind that.
To be fair, the ODBII is but a check: does the car think it's running fine? if so, pass. Life is good. Should be a quick 1-2 minute thing. That 95% pass shows that stuff is really reliable today--or people are actually staying on top of repairs, and getting stuff fixed when the CEL goes on. [Or maybe there's a bit of corruption? is that what you fear? Wouldn't blame you, up here the computer system is tied to the state somehow, so it's not easy to cheat the system.]
But you are right, the older "gross polluters" are the ones doing the most "damage"--yet get a free pass. Technically--they met emissions requirements for the year of manufacture*, and we like to grandfather things in the general case. Approximately no one is going to like seeing a ban (de facto or otherwise) on say anything pre-1990. Or worse, anything older than say 20 years, where, as each calendar year goes by, yet another model year is considered "gross polluting" and thus somehow forced off the road.
[*Ok I don't know what they are in spec, but no one is checking, and if they were, they'd only have to pass the far-worse limits that existed in the past.]
*
Wife and I have 3 vehicles (used to be 4) but two in her name, one in mine. At least it put a few months between getting vehicles into the shop. That helps, sorta. And now I have two of my fleet "aged out" and no longer have to pass ODBII checks.