Bill to Cut Smog by 5% Annually Wins Senate OK

Ambitious legislation designed to reduce by 5% a year the release of air pollutants in California’s smoggiest urban regions was passed by the Senate Monday over a protest that it would give government too much “control over how we lead our lives.”

The proposal was returned to the Assembly for agreement on Senate amendments. The vote was 25 to 4.

Regarded as perhaps the most far-reaching anti-smog bill of the legislative session, the plan by Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto) is aimed at meeting both federal clean air standards and more restrictive state standards “as soon as practicable.”

Under the bill, air pollution districts--such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District--must make a serious stab at reducing emissions of pollutants by a difficult-to-achieve 5% a year.

In addition to giving new authority to state and local anti-smog agencies to regulate and control polluting fumes from such products as paints, varnishes and solvents, the legislation also would give new powers to many districts to establish “transportation control measures.”

Currently, the South Coast AQMD is authorized to implement “transportation controls” in the battle against smog in much of Southern California. The bill would allow other air districts in smoggy urban regions to do the same.

In order to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions, district officials could adopt strategies to reduce the use of cars and trucks, curb vehicle trips, cut back on miles traveled and decrease idling of engines.

But Sen. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin) asserted that an air district could “determine that people take the bus to work two days a week and not use their cars.” He said the bill would “confer major new authority on governmental entities that are going to have enormous control over how we lead our lives.”

Sen. Robert B. Presley (D-Riverside), recognized as the Legislature’s leading smog fighter, countered that he believes districts would employ discretion in establishing transportation controls on citizens. He said the South Coast district had already used discretion in adopting controls.

But, he emphasized, “We are going to have to face up to the fact that we are going to have to use cars less.”

The Sher bill is one of the most aggressive anti-smog proposals offered in the Legislature in years. It comes at a time when some authorities voice concern that California is merely holding its own or even slipping backward in the fight against air pollution.

Supporters of the bill consider it to be tougher in some respects than the federal Clean Air Act and would demonstrate that California is making serious efforts to conquer air pollution in the smoggiest of urban areas.

Virtually everyone agrees that the 5% standard would be difficult to accomplish. In fighting smog, the initial steps achieve the biggest results--in California’s case, these were reductions in automobile exhaust emissions stretching back almost 30 years. But each succeeding move is tougher to deliver and usually does not result in spectacular successes.