Hot Line Proves That Where There’s Smoke, There’s Ire

Dear Street Smart:

While driving on the Costa Mesa Freeway, I was stuck behind a vehicle that was emiting smoke from the tailpipe. Not only was there a large cloud of smoke, but the smell was so bad that I had to roll up my windows and change lanes.

I understand that there is a telephone number that you can call to report cars that emit excessive amounts of smoke from their tailpipes. Could you please print this number and explain how the system works?

David B. Smith, Corona del Mar Anyone stuck behind such a stinker can call (800) CUT-SMOG. You’ll reach the Air Quality Management District, which will attempt to take action against the owner of the vehicle.

Bill Kelly, an AQMD spokesman, said the program works like this: You report the car’s license number, its make and description (a gold Mercedes, for instance, or a pink VW bug), and the date, time and location at which you observed it. The air district taps into the state Department of Motor Vehicle’s database to determine the owner.

A letter is then dispatched to the owner of the smoking vehicle saying that he or she may be in violation of the state’s air pollution laws and asking that the problem be repaired. It also provides a form to fill out and return to the district either verifying that the work was done or stating that a mechanic said no repairs were necessary.

The program is voluntary, because the district has no enforcement power. Nonetheless, it has reaped some results, Kelly said. The CUT-SMOG line receives about 15,000 complaints a month from irked Southern California motorists. The response rate from suspected polluters who receive letters from the district is about 40%.

Even those who ignore the district’s warning are eventually snagged. The California Highway Patrol has eight officers in the Southland assigned specifically to squad cars that do nothing but hunt down polluters. And if the CHP doesn’t get them, the DMV will with its mandatory smog check every other year for all cars on the road.

Dear Street Smart:

I own a 1979 diesel auto. The cost of diesel fuel relative to regular and unleaded gas has me baffled. We travel with our diesel to all parts of the United States, and I have wondered why in places like Oklahoma diesel is 20 cents a gallon less than unleaded, whereas the cost of diesel relative to unleaded is higher in California. Are diesel refinery requirements here more stringent than elsewhere?

Carl Weinert, Mission Viejo Oil industry experts say there are several factors that come into play to keep diesel costs high in California relative to the price of other types of gasoline.

For starters, there are additional refining requirements in California, according to Doug Elmets, a spokesman for ARCO. California’s air pollution laws require that diesel fuel sold in the state contain one-tenth the sulfur in diesel sold in other states. This adds additional refining steps and, hence, additional cost.

Elmets said supply and demand also occasionally play a role in keeping California’s diesel prices a bit higher relative to gasoline. There are more diesel automobiles in the state than in any other, but the fuel supply doesn’t always keep up with the demand.

Diesel prices in other states can also rise and fall with the seasons. Diesel is a close relative of the fuel that is used to heat homes in many Midwestern and Northeast states, according to Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Letter, an authoritative newsletter on the oil industry.

During winter months, when the demand for heating oil is great, the supply of diesel in those states is less, driving up prices. In the summer, refineries shift back to producing more of the diesel, causing prices to slip downward. The price of unleaded and regular gasoline, meanwhile, generally is not affected as much by seasonal factors.