Air Officials See Scant Easing of California Smog

President Bush’s new program to secure the “right to clean air” for every American was greeted with concern and disappointment by air pollution control officials and environmentalists in California, who said it may do little to solve the nation’s most intractable smog problem.

Although officials here Monday generally praised the President for elevating clean air on the national political agenda--and giving a big boost to regional air quality plans to put cleaner-fueled cars on the road--they said Bush could have done much more.

Weaker in Some Ways

In fact, nearly all of the President’s proposals have been borrowed from regulations already on the books in California. And in several important respects, the President’s proposals are substantially weaker.

Tailpipe standards proposed by the White House are in some cases weaker than those adopted last week in Sacramento by the state Air Resources Board. Moreover, the Administration’s plan would make it much more difficult to enforce those standards because automobile manufacturers would for the first time be allowed to average emissions over their entire model line instead of having to certify that each car complied with specific emission limits.

The President’s generally well-received proposal calling on auto makers to build 1 million cars a year by 1997 that can run on methanol or other cleaner-burning fuels may not be enough to make up for the more lenient tailpipe standards proposed for gasoline cars, officials said.

What this all means, air pollution officials and environmentalists said, is that California--and particularly the South Coast Air Basin--are getting far less help from the White House than they hoped for in attacking the nation’s worst urban air pollution problem.

“If you view it in the absolute sense of regulations, it’s only a marginal improvement. But if you view it in the sense of momentum and a national commitment to some of the things we’re talking about, it’s an important statement,” said James M. Lents, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Smog Provisions Criticized

Bob Hattoy, regional director of the Sierra Club, said: “If you live in the Great Lakes or New England and you’re worried about acid rain, then Bush is taking some very strong steps in dealing with that issue . . . . But when it gets to smog and toxics, the President’s proposal is kind and gentle to polluters but tough on the health of those who are going to have to breathe dirty air until the year 2010.”

Still, Lents and others applauded the President’s clean fuels program and new measures to reduce emissions that cause acid rain, principally from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest, as the most innovative proposals in the package, which Bush unveiled to a group of environmentalists, business executives and others assembled in the East Room of the White House.

Bush said nine major urban areas with the greatest ozone pollution, including Los Angeles and San Diego, would be covered by a plan to phase in alternative fuels and cleaner-burning vehicles beginning in 1995. The other seven areas are Baltimore, Chicago, metropolitan areas of Connecticut, Houston, Milwaukee, New York City and Philadelphia.

Also under the Bush proposal, Los Angeles would be granted a 20-year extension to meet federal clean air standards. The South Coast Air Basin, like many smoggy urban areas of the country, missed the December, 1987, deadline in the Clean Air Act to comply with federal air quality requirements. Bush proposed a deadline in 2010, which is in line with the AQMD’s proposed deadline of 2007.

If Congress concurs, the Los Angeles area would be spared a cutoff in federal highway and sewer funds for failing to meet the original deadline.

Last March, the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a far-reaching, 20-year strategy to introduce clean-fueled vehicles to Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Within 10 years, the plan calls for 40% of all passenger vehicles, 70% of all trucks and 100% of transit buses to be “low-emitting” vehicles, a category that includes methanol, ethanol, electricity and other fuels.

The AQMD is also scheduled to adopt a rule in December requiring all fleets in the basin with 15 or more vehicles to purchase the cleaner vehicles when they replace existing vehicles, beginning in 1993.

Overall, however, the net gain in California air quality is expected to be far less than in other areas of the country, which have not adopted standards approaching those in California. “I don’t think it’s tougher than what’s taking place in California. In fact, it’s probably weaker in many respects,” said William Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators in Washington.

He noted that, although the President called for the same tailpipe limits on smog-forming hydrocarbons as approved last week by the state Air Resources Board, the President’s proposal would require cars to meet the standard only for the first 50,000 miles. The California standard extends pollution controls to 100,000 miles per vehicle.

“From a California perspective, it is disappointing,” said James Thorton, senior counsel with the private, nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.

The federal tailpipe standard is important to California and the four-county South Coast Air Basin because fully one-fourth of the cars on Southland roads and freeways are from out of state and are not covered by California’s more stringent air pollution controls.

Moreover, air pollution officials have long warned that air quality gains made over the past decade because of cleaner-burning cars could soon be neutralized and reversed by growing numbers of people and vehicles unless stricter controls are imposed--a point acknowledged by the White House.

The controls proposed by Bush, although helpful for most of the nation, make little advances over California technology and controls.

For example, Bush proposed that federal tailpipe standards for the first time cover pickup trucks. But California has treated pickup trucks like cars since 1968.

Another key element of Bush’s plan would require so-called Stage II vapor recovery systems at gasoline stations--the familiar double hose that carries gasoline vapors back to underground storage tanks as customers fill their tanks.

California’s smoggiest urban areas have had them since 1977, and last year the state ordered the program extended to rural areas as well, on grounds that the vapors were a cancer hazard as well as a contributor to smog.

The AQMD’s Lents also said the Administration plan appears to ignore diesel emissions, a pollutant that evokes the greatest public outrage. It is also primarily responsible for reduced visibility in the basin. An AQMD analysis of the Administration plan also found that it fails to address pollution from planes, trains, ships and interstate trucks.

BUSH’S AIR QUALITY PLAN

President Bush’s new proposals aimed at improving the nation’s air quality include controls on emissions that cause smog, acid rain and caps on the release of toxic chemicals, as well as plans for alternative, cleaner-burning fuels for vehicles.

Here is a comparison of the new proposals with current rules set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District:

TAILPIPE EMISSIONS:

The Bush plan would limit hydrocarbon emissions to .25 grams per mile for the first 50,000 miles of a vehicle’s life. Nitrogen oxide would be limited to 0.7 grams. There would be no change in carbon monoxide emissions.

The EPA currently limits hydrocarbon emissions to .41 grams per mile; nitrogen oxides at 1 gram; carbon monoxide at 3.4 grams.

The state Air Resources Board sets

tailpipe emissions in California. Current regulations limit hydrocarbons to .41 grams per mile, nitrogen oxide to .4 grams and carbon monoxide to 7.0 grams.

New rules take effect in the 1993 model year and by 1997 all cars would have to meet a standard of .25 grams per mile for hydrocarbons.

Cars would have to stay that clean through 50,000 miles. At 100,000 miles, cars could emit no more than .31 grams per mile.

Carbon monoxide limits of 3.4 grams per mile also take effect in 1993 models. Cars would have to hold emissions to that standard through 50,000 miles of driving.

At 100,000 miles, emissions would have to be limited to no more than 4.1 grams per mile.

GAS PUMP:

The Bush plan calls for gas station pump recovery systems nationwide that have been in place in California since 1977.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS:

The Bush plan would require 500,000 vehicles powered by alternative fuels to be built per year by 1995, rising to 1 million by 1997. The EPA currently has no alternative fuel standards.

In Southern California, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has proposed alternative fuels within 10 years for 40% of all cars, 70% of trucks and for all buses.

Beginning in 1993, all public and private vehicle fleets of 15 or more vehicles must buy methanol-powered or other low-emitting vehicles.

ACID RAIN:

Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The Bush plan, although not changing the current standards, would cut emissions of sulfur dioxide nearly in half by the year 2000, calling for a 10-million-ton reduction. It would require a 2-million-ton reduction of nitrogen dioxide over the same period. The plan would accomplish its goals by requiring the highest polluting utilities, most of which now violate the standards, to adopt extensive emission controls.

The EPA ambient standard for sulfur dioxide is .14 parts per million for a 24-hour average. The EPA ambient standard for nitrogen dioxide is .53 parts per million.

California’s ambient standard for sulfur dioxide is .05 parts per million for a 24-hour average. The state standard for nitrogen dioxide is .25 parts per million.

TOXIC CHEMICALS:

The Bush plan calls for new controls on many industries that emit toxins, seeking to reduce pollutants suspected of causing cancer by 75% to 90% in the next decade. The plan would augment current regulations by introducing direct controls on particular

industries and adding to current restrictions on individual toxic pollutants. The EPA would establish regulations to control 10 industries within two years; 25% of industry within four years; 50% within seven years and the rest if necessary within 10 years. California now regulates two toxic chemicals, benzene and chromate, and is formulating regulations for six others.