Ohio's E-Check testing program, the subject of much hate from motorists, got a six-month reprieve on Friday.

Gov. Ted Strickland signed a four-page executive order that extends the testing program in seven counties in Northeast Ohio through June 30.

Affected are 1.4 million motorists in Summit, Portage, Medina, Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain and Geauga counties.

The order also gives EPA Director Chris Korleski authority to extend to June 30 the state's contract with Envirotest Systems Corp., the Connecticut-based company that conducts the every-other-year tests that began in late 1995.

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The program had been scheduled to expire on Tuesday.

Korleski is expected to sign the extension on Monday, said EPA spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas.

By July 1, the EPA will be required to seek bids for a new auto-exhaust testing contract. Strickland is expected to sign a new executive order that will then extend E-Check through June 30, 2009.

The state will continue to pay for the tests, not motorists, Fazekas said.

Strickland's action came as no surprise. Earlier this month, the Ohio Senate approved legislation giving Strickland authority to keep E-Check and to extend the contract.

Strickland said E-Check is ''a critical component'' of Ohio's continuing efforts to comply with provisions of the federal Clean Air Act.

The tests are required for areas under federal orders to clean the air and cannot be eliminated unless there are comparable reductions in other sources of pollution.

Strickland said that without E-Check, Ohio manufacturers could face a bigger portion of the burden for cleaning the air.

The action ''will allow the state to avoid being subject to federal sanctions and stagnant business growth as a result of its failure to comply'' with federal ozone limits, he said.

Last June, Strickland vetoed language in the two-year budget that could have curtailed the scope of E-Check testing. Ohio needs to test vehicles through either a tailpipe test or an on-board computer test, and both programs are needed, Strickland said.

E-Check previously was required in four counties around Cincinnati and three around Dayton, but that requirement has been lifted.

The seven Northeast Ohio counties plus Ashtabula County fail to meet tighter federal limits for ozone. The U.S. EPA considers the eight counties to be a single ozone region, and a high reading in one county affects all eight.

Ozone is formed when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicles, power plants and industry mix in hot, sunny conditions. It can cause breathing problems for the elderly, children and asthmatics.

Northeast Ohio must have satisfactory ozone readings by the end of 2009 or face new sanctions.

The state is in the process of devising a new compliance plan.

One possibility would be to require the sale of cleaner-burning but more expensive gasoline, said EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer.

If that's not enough, many of the heavily populated counties of Northeast Ohio — including Summit, Stark, Medina, Portage and Cuyahoga — are struggling with soot.

Unless the affected counties comply with federal limits, there could be additional sanctions.

Microscopic soot is considered a major health threat because people breath it deep into their lungs. It can hurt the elderly, children and people with heart-lung problems.

The major sources of soot, which unlike ozone occurs year-round, are coal-burning power plants, smokestack industries and diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles.