Clean Air Bill Compromise Faces Senate Floor Debate

Senate negotiators on clean air legislation reached a tentative agreement Friday with the Bush Administration on a proposal to start putting thousands of cleaner-fueled vehicles on the nation’s roads in 1995.

But the agreement, more modest in scope than other proposals advanced by proponents of alternative fuels, was immediately criticized by environmentalists as another example of the way the closed-door negotiations over clean air are weakening the legislation to be offered on the Senate floor next week.

Senate leaders said the negotiations would continue through Monday in an effort to reach an agreement with the Administration on automobile emissions standards--the most contentious part of the complex legislation being drafted to revise the 1970 Clean Air Act.

However, Majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said the Senate would resume its floor debate on the clean air bill next Thursday, whether or not final agreement is reached with the Administration. Mitchell and other members of the Senate Environment Committee said they would offer a revised version of the bill that will either “be the product of an agreement with the Administration” or a committee substitute reflecting at least some of the tentative compromises reached so far.

Only the broad outlines of these still-evolving and secret compromises are known, but environmentalists and conservation officials from California and other states who want a strong clean air bill have criticized them as greatly weakening the original legislation drafted by the Senate Environment Committee.

Under the latest agreement reached on Friday, the operators of centrally fueled fleet vehicles in 69 severely polluted cities would be required to phase in the use of vehicles that run on cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline in 1995.

The program would initially affect only 30% of the vehicles in federal fleets, with similar regulations coming into effect for private fleet owners, such as taxicab companies and express-mail delivery services, two years later. That percentage would be doubled every two years until 90% of the vehicles in both fleets met the new emissions standards.

Environmentalists quickly noted that plan fell far short of the Bush Administration’s original proposal to mandate the production of a million alternatively fueled cars by 1997. That proposal, the centerpiece of the Administration’s clean air bill, was gutted in both the House and Senate versions pending before Congress because of fierce opposition from the auto industry. The Administration itself later backed away from it.

Unlike other alternative fuel proposals, including the one first advanced by the Administration, the compromise accepted Friday would not apply to cars meant for sale to the general public. The emissions standards that the fleet vehicles would have to meet also may not be strict enough to mandate the development of even cleaner burning non-gasoline fuels, environmentalists said.

“This is basically just a reformulated gasoline and a fleet vehicle program and nothing else,” said Daniel Weiss of the Sierra Club. “The Administration has taken the central weapon of President Bush’s clean air proposal and turned it into a pop gun. It’s a major retreat,” he added.

Senate sources estimated that the provision will initially affect about 5,000 vehicles in the federal fleet and 30,000 cars, vans and light trucks in the centrally fueled private fleets of the nation’s 69 most-polluted cities, which include Los Angeles.

Other compromises have also been criticized by environmentalists and congressional sources say there may a Senate revolt, with several senators offering amendments to strengthen the bill when it returns to the floor.

“You’re going to see this all hashed out again on the floor,” a source close to Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif) said. “It’s not over with yet by any means.”