Taking a Stand Against Smog

The state Air Resources Board has a long list of sound reasons to approve a long-range plan to clean up the air over Southern California. Its questions about the plan having been answered, it should vote today to let the region get on about its cleanup job without further delay.

The plan was drafted over a period of five years in a joint effort by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Southern California Assn. of Governments. It calls for at least 125 new rules and regulations, ranging from changes in zoning codes to changes in vehicle fuels over the next 20 years. Its goal is to scrub Southern California air clean enough for people to breathe without fearing for their lives.

The Air Resources Board, which must approve the plan before it goes to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, put the plan on hold two months ago and asked the agencies to clear up some points. It wanted to know, for example, how the district could be sure that cities would do what needed doing to make the plan work. It also asked for more details on the way the district plans to analyze the social and economic consequences of each new regulation before it is adopted. The board also asked what could be done to make businessmen less nervous about the plan. The first two answers will be delivered today. The third may take the entire 20 years over which the plan will be put into effect.

One part of the answer about cities, for example, is that the plan already has made its way through committees and task forces made up of dozens of elected city officials who, among them, represent 7 million Southern Californians.

The answer about business will be more difficult. One argument against the plan in its present form, advanced by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and others, is that the district would analyze the social and economic aspects of each new regulation itself. Critics of the plan want an independent analysis.

One difficulty with that is legal. The district, not some independent consultant, is responsible for seeing to it that Southern California meets clean- air standards. Another is practical. There never has been, nor is there likely to be, a single analysis of any proposed air-quality regulation. They come in threes, one by the district staff, one by industry to demonstrate that the regulation is excessive and one by environmental groups to show that the rule is too soft to do the job.

The state board’s staff has recommended approval of the plan. The board can vouch for half of the smog reductions in the plan because those will come as a result of regulations that the state board itself will adopt.

Nothing in the plan will impose harsh burdens on Southern Californians or force drastic changes in the way they live. With these and other sound reasons for approval, the board has no more choice in the matter than do Southern California’s smog controllers who must start putting the plan to work as soon as possible.