Coalition Sees High Costs, Lost Jobs in AQMD Clean Air Plan

A coalition of builders, manufacturers and labor unions charged Tuesday that a plan to clean Southern California skies will burden industry with costly and cumbersome regulations that could force at least 350,000 people out of work.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District should crack down on smog-producing vehicles, the main source of the region’s air pollution, rather than place unreasonable demands on industry, which accounts for one-third of the problem, said William T. Huston, a builder and spokesman for the Community Air Quality Task Force.

“We need to have jobs and clean air,” Huston said. “They have to go hand in hand.”

The coalition created the task force about a year ago, shortly after the AQMD adopted a 20-year air quality management plan designed to bring the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino into compliance with federal clean air standards.

At the time, a study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments suggested that there would be a net gain of more than 80,000 jobs and an industry study predicted the region would lose only 55,700 jobs.

But on Tuesday, in its first attempt to create widespread opposition to the plan, the task force released an 86-page study predicting that the loss would be much higher--350,000 positions immediately and the potential for a ripple effect that could displace 1.4 million in all.

The report said unnecessary regulation will drive businesses out of Southern California and into regions where government regulations are less stringent.

But Claudia Keith, an AQMD spokeswoman, said a district analysis done when the plan was approved showed that any loss of industry would be offset by overall economic growth. The AQMD analysis predicted an additional 3 million jobs in the region over 20 years.

“Some of the assumptions (the task force) made we wouldn’t agree with,” Keith said.

Speaking for the task force at a press conference were representatives of the California Manufacturers Assn.; the AFL-CIO Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union; the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition; the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and a few owners of small businesses.

The air quality plan includes 120 rules which, among other things, restrict the use of certain chemicals or mandate extra pollution controls on manufacturing. Some rules already are in effect, such as car-pooling incentives and new controls on industrial emissions. Other rules still must be approved after public hearings, Keith said.

If all 120 rules are adopted, the aerospace industry would be hardest hit, losing at least 82,000 jobs, said Joseph E. Haring, an economist with the Pasadena Research Institute, which analyzed the potential impact of the plan on eight industries for the task force.

The task force report said the electric and electronics industry would lose 77,000 jobs; the fabricated metal products industry 62,000; the chemical, rubber and plastics industry 45,000; furniture makers 45,000, and the construction industry 24,000. The plan would displace 13,000 workers in the motion picture industry but have a negligible effect on restaurants, the report said.

The figures were based on census data and surveys of the companies themselves, Haring said.

Huston said the task force is trying to find supporters in the state Legislature to introduce legislation that would require an independent analysis of the air-quality plan and its potential impact on jobs.

David Finegood, owner of a furniture company, said AQMD rules are forcing him to move a manufacturing plant from Compton to Tijuana, where he can still produce furniture at competitive prices. He said he laid off 200 workers at the Compton plant two weeks ago and expects to lay off 100 others. “We really cannot stay here,” he said.