ENVIRONMENT / CLEAN AIR ACTS : Federal Rules Take Back Seat : California officials say the new law will often lag behind more stringent state and regional measures.

It has been a decade in the making, but when President Bush signs the new federal Clean Air Act later this month, many in the nation’s smoggiest cities will agree it was worth the wait.

Cars will be cleaner. Factories will be less polluting. Cancer-causing air contaminants will be reduced.

By the year 2010, every smog-bound metropolitan area in the country is supposed to be in compliance with federal clean air standards, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

But if Southern Californians in the four-county South Coast Air Basin are breathing easier in the years ahead, it will be largely due to state and regional cleanup efforts, according to air pollution authorities in California.

The clean air compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators late last month after a decade of congressional deadlock did much to fortify existing efforts in California but failed to significantly advance the cause of clean air in the state.

“For the nation as a whole it’s a big step forward. I think states like New York and Texas can be happy with what they saw,” said James M. Lents, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“But the problems are just so difficult here that the federal act needed to go a little further for California. . . . It’s sort of a wash,” he said.

That view is shared by officials of the state Air Resources Board, which recently adopted the world’s toughest tailpipe-emission standards.

But it is not shared by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who continues to smart from criticism directed his way by California air pollution regulators unhappy with parts of the compromise. Waxman played a central role in fashioning the federal legislation.

“I do feel we did very well for California,” Waxman said Wednesday. “The new Clean Air Act represented a number of compromises . . . but overall we have enacted the most aggressive program to clean up air pollution anywhere in the world.”

Key provisions in the federal legislation were modeled after California laws either already on the books or soon scheduled to be put into force.

Still, state and regional officials said they are grateful for progress in Washington, if for no other reason than the fact that state clean air initiatives will be reinforced by federal law.

For example, the federal clean air legislation appears to have bolstered state plans to force auto makers to introduce a new generation of cars that run on electricity and cleaner-burning alternative fuels like methanol and ethanol.

Last September, in the face of intense lobbying by the oil industry, the Air Resources Board rejected a recommendation by its own staff to require service stations to meet sales quotas for alternative fuels in the years ahead. Instead, the ARB merely required that service stations make the fuels “available.”

But making fuels available and pricing them competitively to meet mandated sales goals are two different things. The ARB staff and others worried that unless oil companies were required to meet fuel sales quotas--a move that could mean artificially cutting the price--the more costly alternative fuels may not be able to compete with gasoline in the early years when cars will be designed to run on both fuels. The federal law contains a sales mandate.

“The authority in the federal Clean Air Act goes well beyond the authority contained in the ARB rule,” said William Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Control Officers Assn.

California will also be helped by tougher federal tailpipe-emission standards for conventional, gasoline-powered cars because one out of five cars arriving here are purchased in other states.

Despite these gains, state and regional air quality officials would have preferred that Congress do more.

The federal legislation requires a 15% improvement in air quality in the first six years. California requires a 15% improvement in half the time. Federal standards for reformulated gasoline take effect a year later than identical California standards.

Of particular concern is a provision which preempts state regulation of all but the largest off-road vehicles and engines, such as tractors and construction equipment, which account for 10% of the state’s air pollution.

Instead, Congress invested the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with that responsibility. But the EPA’s enforcement efforts have been spotty in the past, and California officials remain apprehensive.

Still, politics is said to be the art of the possible.

“We heard what they thought was most important for them. We got 90% of it,” Waxman said.

CALIFORNIA AND FEDERAL LAWS COMPARED

Here’s how California state and regional clean air regulations compare with a revised federal Clean Air Act approved by Congress: REGIONAL CLEAN AIR PROGRESS Federal Clean Air Bill: Areas moderately to extremely polluted must cut smog 15% within six years, with 3% annual average reductions thereafter. California Clean Air Act: Smoggy areas, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, must cut smog 15% within three years, with 5% annual reductions thereafter. LIMITS ON INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION SOURCES Federal Clean Air Bill: Applies only to any new air pollution sources, such as a factory, emitting 10 tons or more of air pollutants a year. For every new ton of pollution created, the polluter must find 1.2 tons of reductions elsewhere. If the state government fails to require the Best Available Control Technology (BACT), the ratio would jump to 1.5 tons of reductions for every new ton of pollution created. South Coast Air Quality Management District rule: Applies to all new sources of pollution, regardless of the amount of pollution produced. The ratio of pollution reductions to new pollution created is the same as the federal bill, 1.2 to 1. REFORMULATED GASOLINE Federal Clean Air Bill: Starting in 1995, gasoline sold in Los Angeles and 8 other smoggy regions must be reformulated to cut emissions of smog-forming hydrocarbons and toxic pollutants 15%, reaching a 20% reduction by the year 2000. California Air Resources Board rule: Starting in 1992, standards will reduce emissions 20%, with an additional tightening under consideration next year. ULTRA CLEAN VEHICLES Federal Clean Air Bill: Starting with 1996 models, auto makers must begin producing at least 150,000 low-emitting cars and light-duty trucks under a California pilot program. California Air Resources Board rule: Starting in 1994, 10% of all new cars sold must be 50% cleaner than the cleanest standard new car built that year. Beginning in 1997, one out of four new cars sold in the state must be 70% cleaner than the cleanest regular car that year. By 2003, every car sold would be from 70% to 100% cleaner than conventional gasoline cars in those years. Program represents world’s toughest tailpipe standard and is expected to result in cars that run on electricity, methanol, ethanol, compressed natural gas and other cleaner fuels. CLEAN FLEETS Federal Clean Air Bill: Starting with 1998 models, fleets of 10 or more cars in the two dozen smoggiest cities must run 80% cleaner than today’s cleanest conventional gasoline cars. Trucks must be 50% cleaner. Requirements could be delayed if the vehicles are not available. South Coast Air Quality Mangement District rule: Rule is scheduled to be voted on next May. As presently proposed, it applies to fleets of 15 or more cars. The rule would take effect in 1993. By 1999, 75% of all fleet cars would have to be 84% cleaner than today’s cars and by 2000, all fleet cars would have to be 100% cleaner--indicating electric cars. TAILPIPE EMISSIONS (Standard Cars) Federal Clean Air Bill: Tougher standards phased in beginning in 1994. More stringent reductions will be required for 2003 model year cars if the EPA finds them cost-effective and needed. California Air Resources Board rule: The same tailpipe standard in the federal bill takes effect a year earlier in California. It sets a limit of .4 grams per mile on smog-forming hydrocarbons. Beginning in 1993, cars must be 36% cleaner for emissions of smog-forming hydrocarbons. For other pollutants like nitrogen oxides, California standards are several years ahead of the federal act. SMOG EQUIPMENT WARRANTIES Federal Clean Air Bill: Coverage for eight years or 80,000 miles for catalytic converters and electronic diagnostic equipment, and two years or 24,000 miles for all other pollution gear. California Air Resources Board rule: Coverage for 10 years or 100,000 miles for catalytic converters and electronic diagnostic equipment, and from two years or 24,000 miles to three years or 30,000 miles for all other pollution controls. SERVICE STATION PUMPS Federal Clean Air Bill: Special nozzles on fuel pumps to capture fumes in 60 smoggy areas. California Air Resources Board rule: Same rule has been in effect in state’s smoggest areas since 1976, and throughout California since 1989. TOXIC AIR CONTAMINANTS Federal Clean Air Bill: Over next 10 years, majority of polluting plants must use best available control technology to cut emissions of 189 toxic air contaminants based solely on the availability of pollution control technology. For cancer risks remaining after these controls are applied, EPA would set health-based standards to reduce cancer risks to one in 10,000 for people leaving near factories. California Air Resources Board rule: Twelve airborne toxic chemicals have been listed, and regulations imposed for six of them. Under state law, chemicals are looked at individually and judged based on their health risk. The six regulated compounds account for the largest portion of total health risk from airborne toxics. South Coast Air Quality Mangement District rule: Incorporates state Air Resources Board rule, and limits cancer risk to 1 in a million. If air pollution controls are available for airborne toxics, the risk is placed at 10 in a million.