Its the EPA sticker, so it has to be there.
Anyway, just to update, the referee station passed the car no problem, and saved me 30 bucks. The place that wouldn't test it kept calling my car "grey market", but its not. Grey market cars are vehicles purchased in overseas markets that are brought stateside without being converted to American specs. Like a Euro spec Bimmer or Japanese spec Skyline. There are exceptions to the CA emissions vs Federal emissions. One is military members, and another I learned is like if you're driving in another state and wreck your car or it burns, you can buy a car in that state and register it in CA even though it has that "no California" sticker.