Environmental Activists Vow Push for Strict New Rules to Fight Smog

Environmental leaders on the toxics and Santa Monica Bay issues said Friday they would campaign to rouse political rebellion against air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin, including an initiative that would impose new regulations on motorists and business hours.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) said his political organization of volunteers and celebrities would push an initiative for the 1990 ballot if local officials don’t crack down on air pollution. His organization, Campaign California, played a key role in the statewide toxics initiative, Proposition 65, that voters passed last year.

“The bottom line is we need to create a new citizen-based air pollution lobby,” Hayden said. Local officials will be given a deadline to take the smog problem more seriously--”less than two years,” Hayden said. “We will use an initiative if our efforts at trying to get legislation fail.”

More Smog Inspections

The crackdown could come in the form of stricter enforcement of existing anti-pollution rules, or requiring such things as more auto smog inspections, ride-sharing by workers, removing trucks from freeways during rush hour and using cleaner fuels in the Los Angeles Basin. However, Hayden did not say which new approach he would favor.

Hayden was joined by another key member of the Proposition 65 campaign, Tom Houston, in declaring their new interest in air pollution and smog. Houston, the former chief of staff to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, is now president of the city’s Environmental Quality Board, an advisory commission appointed by the mayor.

Besides the toxics issue, Hayden and Houston have been active in recent years in the controversy over pollution of Santa Monica Bay by sewage and urban runoff. But their remarks Friday signaled an interest in becoming more involved with the air pollution issue, which some polls have found to be the biggest environmental problem to most Southern Californians.

They were accompanied Friday at a Hollywood press conference by Mark Abramowitz, vice president of the Coalition for Clean Air, an activist group that has advocated stricter regulations against driving and industrial pollution. The press conference was to announce an Aug. 27 meeting of activists and government officials to recommend what sort of tougher rules are appropriate to reduce air pollution.

Ban on Diesel Engines

Houston said he favors two steps that are certain to draw considerable reaction. He said only new, cleaner-burning fuels should be used in cars in California, requiring retrofitting of engines on existing cars, and diesel engines in cars should be banned.

Also, Houston urged that an agency of government regulate business hours to reduce traffic congestion, which contributes to air pollution. “If you’re an employer, a large employer, and you want your employees to be at work from 9 to 5 . . . you probably ought to pay a penalty for that,” Houston said.

However, Hayden said specific demands for new laws and rules would not be decided until after the Aug. 27 gathering, which was billed as a “summit” meeting of clean air activists and local officials.