AQMD Approves Changes to Region’s Clean Air Plan

The South Coast Air Quality Management District board on Friday approved more than 50 changes to the region’s far-reaching 20-year clean air plan, including controversial proposals for financial incentives to fight smog, from parking fees to a trading market in rights to foul the air.

“The issue of using market forces is edging toward the front,” said AQMD Executive Officer James M. Lents.

Billed by AQMD staff as a refinement of the 1989 plan--a sweeping blueprint that brings the anti-smog campaign to dry cleaners and back-yard barbecue chefs as well as refineries and power plants--the revision generated bitter criticism from environmental groups, which accused the air district of backsliding. “The big losers are the people that breathe,” said Tim Little, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air.

Several trade associations lauded the move toward exacting payments from individuals and industries for behavior that pollutes. But representatives of small business also attacked the update, contending that it is too tough on the local economy. Los Angeles County Supervisor and AQMD board member Mike Antonovich agreed, saying that the plan “destroys Southern California’s competitive edge in creating jobs” as he cast the only dissenting vote on the 12-member panel. One member left before the vote.

The new clean-air strategy was widely supported by Orange County officials speaking at the meeting. Orange County transportation officials gave the AQMD their endorsement, calling the revisions far more realistic and less vague than the original plan.

“It contains milestone efforts that are tough in nature, but achievable,” said Bruce Nestande, a former chairman of the California Transportation Commission who is now vice president of Arnel Development in Costa Mesa . He also is a former AQMD board member.

The public hearing at the Pasadena Hilton lasted 9 1/2 hours, with an initial crowd of about 300 dwindling throughout the day. About a dozen pickets outside the hotel’s entrance held signs reading “SCAQMD Unfair to Business.” Inside, several in the audience hoisted posters asking “Clean Air When?” and demanding “Mass Transit, Not Mass Traffic.”

The plan will cost $96 billion by the end of 2010--$4.8 billion a year. “We expect most of that will be passed on to the consumer,” at a rate of about 84 cents per person each day, said AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn.

The latest version of the anti-smog plan must be approved by the California Air Resources Board, which is expected to spend up to a year reviewing it.

Each measure in the plan must be enacted by the AQMD after a separate public hearing. Since 1989, 32 measures have been adopted by the AQMD board.

Of the 135 regulations listed for passage by 1996, 54 in the latest version are new.

To aid the cleanup, solo drivers, the major source of smog-forming pollutants, will be further pressured to change their ways.

The plan includes several recommendations to expand ride-sharing in a bid to reduce air pollution from gasoline-powered vehicles. The current regulation requires employers of 100 or more to encourage commuting by car pool, mass transit, bicycles or walking.

The 1991 plan will impose the rule on smaller businesses, with staffs of at least 50.

Students at colleges, and possibly at high schools, also will be targets of ride-sharing programs.

Shopping centers, stadiums, concert halls and other so-called “event centers” also will be required to come up with similar programs to reduce traffic.

Operators of such facilities testified Friday that parking fees, shuttles and other suggested ride-sharing incentives would hurt business. Pomona Mayor Donna Smith heaped scorn on the proposal. “If you attend church,” she asked board members, “are you willing to pay parking fees to talk with God?”

But Michael Lewis, representing four construction-industry associations, said such steps are necessary because “you’re not going to achieve clean air until you put a price on it. Until the individual understands his own contribution . . . you’ll never gain any great strides in modifying our use of the automobile.”

In addition, the plan calls for local governments to eliminate free employee parking in both the public and private sectors.

A $300,000 study of user fees--charging drivers to travel on highways, with prices higher at rush hour and for lone drivers--also is suggested.

The AQMD board agreed to proceed with a requirement for local governments to enact air quality programs that would shorten commutes. For instance, a city could require new housing to be near jobs and vice versa, or encourage development near mass transit stations. The AQMD had earlier said the rules were too vague and asked the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is responsible for transportation and urban planning in the anti-smog plan, to delay the requirement. SCAG had refused.

Monte Ward, director of external affairs for the Orange County Transportation Authority, said road planners are happy that the new plan won’t block the county’s three proposed toll roads. Instead, Ward said, it probably clears the way for them by requiring cities to tackle traffic emissions in other ways, such as imposing limits on free parking at shopping centers.

One new proposal drawing national attention is a “smog exchange” that could replace many of the regulations governing industry with a commodities-style trading market in dirty air. The suggestion came from large businesses, from aerospace to utilities, that have fiercely opposed AQMD controls.

If a “smog exchange” is created, companies would be allocated a number of shares in the system, each representing the right to spew a certain amount of pollutants into the air. They would be free to stay within those limits by any means possible--rather than by equipment or processes dictated by the AQMD. Or they could buy more shares from a firm--and therefore the right to pollute more--that has closed a facility or found a way to make its operation cleaner. The shares would be worth less pollution over time, theoretically making the air cleaner.

Lents said a staff recommendation on the market will probably be presented to the board in January.

Industries have been pushing hard for a market, saying that each company knows best how to reduce its own pollution. Environmentalists are wary, unsure that cleanup goals can be enforced.

The head of a group representing minorities and the poor was even more hostile. “It’s dangerous,” said Eric Mann, executive director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center. He said the market would be “a Trojan horse,” undermining the rest of the plan.

The 6,600 square miles under the AQMD’s jurisdiction in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have the most polluted air in the United States.

While air quality has undeniably improved in the past decade, the region still exceeds federal standards for ozone, which damages lungs, 175 days each year. Los Angeles County is the only county in the nation that does not meet the federal nitrogen dioxide standard. The standard for carbon monoxide was violated in Los Angeles and Orange counties in 1990.

The 1989 plan promised clean air by the year 2007. The 1991 version sets a target of 2010 for meeting all federal standards. More stringent state standards for ozone and suspended particulates--very fine dust that can carry toxics deep into the lungs--will still be exceeded in 2010.

The AQMD also backed off its projection that all cars in the region would be electric by the turn of the century. The 1991 forecast is that 1.4 million, or 17% of all cars, will be electric. Another 33% will run on an alternative fuel such as methanol or natural gas, while 50% will run on gasoline.

The district board Friday set an interim goal of 200,000 electric vehicles on local roads by the year 2000.

Times staff writer Marla Cone contributed to this report from Orange County.