Business Group Wants to Pass the Buck on Smog : Regulation: Coalition seeks to scrap new rules for a set that charges individuals directly for the pollution they cause.

A private Orange County business-industry group recommends scrapping many of the smog rules due to be implemented by year’s end in favor of a plan that would charge people directly for the pollution and congestion they cause.

A report released by the Private Sector Task Force suggests that air quality regulators do away with rules that will force employers to punish their workers for solo driving, such as charging for parking and altering truck delivery schedules.

Instead, they propose that steps be taken to buy back older cars that pollute more, ticket gross polluters, deregulate private transit and charge fees for traveling on the freeways during peak hours, using the money to fund mass transit.

Aimed at getting public officials to change pending anti-smog and auto-use regulations, the group’s report says that the cost to employers of forcing their workers indirectly to change their commuting behavior “is very high.”

Imposing the various measures would not only be “to the detriment of jobs and the cost of consumer goods,” but also prove “ineffectual in meeting air quality goals” and “a serious detriment to the credibility of the regulatory process,” the report suggested.

The Private Sector Task Force is chaired by William R. Jones, vice president of Hughes Aircraft Co., and has a six-member steering committee with representatives from Southern California Edison, Chapman University, the Commercial Industrial Development Assn., the Industrial League of Orange County, the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County, and the Entertainment and Events Center Coalition.

The group’s market-based recommendations were foreshadowed last month when Jones expressed concerns about an impending ban on free parking for solo drivers at major employment, shopping and entertainment complexes.

The ban is one of several measures written into the regional Air Quality and Mobility Plan, which is aimed at getting Southern California to meet federal clean air standards. The plan is a joint product of the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Reacting strongly to the plan’s attempt to shift responsibility to local municipalities for enforcing parking bans and other politically unpopular measures, the chief executive officers of the Los Angeles and Orange County transportation authorities have asked regional agencies to let each county update the regional plan periodically, with rule-making by the regional agencies to occur only as a “backstop” in case local governments fail to take sufficiently strong actions.

A final decision by regional regulators is still pending.

Meanwhile, Orange County’s Private Sector Task Force has been studying the existing Air Quality and Mobility Plan. The Regional Area Planning Council (RAPC), which is made up of representatives from the Orange County Board of Supervisors and cities within the county, sought the private sector’s recommendations. It will formally receive the group’s report at a meeting this afternoon in the County Hall of Administration.

In its own report on regional anti-smog efforts, RAPC concluded that many pending smog rules will end up reducing smog or vehicle travel by less than 1% each.

Charging people for parking, the RAPC report says, while appropriately based on free market principles, needs to be done on a regional basis to avoid forcing cities to go it alone, one-by-one.

Cutting Driving, Smog

Regional Area Planning Council studies show that a large gas tax increase, or an increase in the price of gas, is most likely to reduce commuters’ cumulative driving mileage. Projected mileage reductions in 1995, by percentage:

Cutting Driving, Smog Large gas tax/cost increase 24.9% Mileage tax 10.9 Employee-paid parking 5.3 Small gas tax/cost increase 4.6 Compressed workweeks 2.0

Source: The Planning Center, JHK & Associates