Cash In a Clunker for Clean Air : Environment: Instead of selling cleaner-burning fuel, an L.A.-based oil company will offer $700 for pre-1971 cars. Free emissions tests for cars built before 1975 are also part of the program.
At a time when oil companies are under pressure to become environmentally conscious, Los Angeles-based Unocal has come up with a different idea to fight air pollution.
Instead of selling cleaner-burning gasoline, as two competitors are doing, Unocal said Thursday it will buy 7,000 old, heavily polluting cars and get them off the road, beginning June 1.
Unocal says there’s $700 in it for the first 7,000 owners of pre-1971 cars who want to dump their clunkers. Unocal will then dispatch the old cars--which are not equipped with smog-reducing catalytic converters--to the scrap heap and provide the seller with a free bus pass for a month.
Company officials expect owners of old cars will jump at the chance to get rid of their vehicles. They estimate that it will take just 10 to 15 weeks to round up the 7,000 cars.
Unocal President Richard J. Stegemeier said the sellers could use the $700 toward purchase of cars built after 1975 that are equipped with catalytic converters.
The buy-out program is one of three environmental initiatives costing a total of $10 million over a two-year period announced Thursday by the company.
“This program . . . is a good-faith effort of this company to help improve the quality of life,” Stegemeier told a downtown Los Angeles press conference, held on the roof of a company building to provide a view of the smog. But Stegemeier conceded that the program “is just a beginning.”
The 7,000 vehicles account for less than 2% of the 410,000 pre-1971 cars on the road in the four-county Los Angeles Basin, the nation’s smoggiest.
Moreover, the pollution reduction achieved by sending 7,000 clunkers to the junkyard would amount to only 0.12% of air pollution from all cars and trucks in the basin, air pollution authorities said.
The Unocal program pales in comparison to air quality gains achieved by marketing cleaner-burning, reformulated gasoline.
For example, when Arco introduced its new EC-1 reformulated fuel last September for pre-1975 cars, the company estimated that the reduction in tailpipe emissions would be comparable to taking 100,000 old cars off the road. Those figures were verified by air pollution authorities. And unlike the one-time benefit of the Unocal program, the benefits of burning cleaner gasoline are ongoing.
Still, Unocal’s South Coast Recycled Auto Program--SCRAP--was generally applauded by state and regional air pollution officials, as well as environmental groups, as a modest step forward. However, they agreed that, while any effort to junk older cars is welcome, it is no substitute for developing cleaner fuels.
“I certainly don’t think they should substitute one for the other,” said Jan Chatten Brown, president of the Coalition for Clean Air. She said it was “absolutely outrageous” that Unocal and other oil companies had not taken Arco’s offer to share its formula for EC-1. Shell Oil Co. recently introduced a reformulated premium gasoline.
Stegemeier said Thursday that, like most oil companies, Unocal is awaiting the results of a cleaner-gasoline research program undertaken jointly by major oil companies and automobile makers. He said that, depending upon the recommendations, it could take as long as 1 1/2 to two years to market a new product.
Mary Nichols of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “What Unocal is doing is demonstrating without any quid pro quo a strategy for turning over the automotive fleet more rapidly and getting some of the worst polluters off the road, which has been advocated by many companies and some government agencies over the years.”
Unocal also announced two other programs to reduce air pollution. It promised free smog checks and low-emission tune-ups for all pre-1975 cars at participating Unocal Protech stations in the Los Angeles region. The emission tests and tune-ups would be done in the “off” year, when the state’s mandatory smog check certificate is not required.
It said the tune-up program could reduce another 7,589 tons of air pollutants per year.
Some environmentalists applauded the smog check and tune-up programs, saying they will provide detailed information on the tailpipe emissions of older cars. The information could lead to an expansion of the old car buy-out program by other companies or by government agencies.
In addition, Unocal said it will use six service vans as part of a rush hour “Protech Patrol,” offering free services to stranded motorists, including jump starts, gasoline to get to the next service station, water and flat-tire changes.
The company said vehicle owners interested in selling their old cars can call Unocal beginning May 2.
Unocal said a number of conditions must be met before a car will be purchased. For example, there must be no outstanding liens on the car, the owner must have the original pink slip, be at least 18 years old or have a parent or guardian present, and prove that the car has been registered by them in the Los Angeles Basin for at least the last six months.
