For anyone who might need this information in the future, I did try the thing with disconnecting the battery and opening the gas cap. It seems that this actually ended up worsening things. First of all, the CEL did go out but the state inspection place could see that the battery had been disconnected and told me that the codes now have to re-set themselves. I think this possible outcome was mentioned in this thread, or somewhere else on the forum and I was afraid of this. That means I now have to drive it about 100 miles (exactly how many miles is a mystery, of course) before the codes re-set. After that, the CEL may or may not come back on.

So I took the car to the dealership who said, as he was writing up the paperwork, "Yea, these cars are a real challenge. We only let mechanics who are certified for Crossfire to work on them." As he was writing it up, I let him know that the light was currently out because the battery had been disconnected. He rolled his eyes and asked why a mechanic would do such a thing (I didn't tell him that I did it), and he stopped writing. He said that as long as the light was out and the codes weren't re-set, then there wasn't anything they could do until the light came back on.

So, I'm back to square one. The only positive thing that may happen is that I drive the car for 100 miles, the CEL doesn't come back on, and I can get the car to pass inspection. I'm not holding my breath....