AQMD Panel Favors Rules Easing Burden on Business

Citing business concerns that smog rules are reducing profits and jobs in Southern California, a commission of the South Coast Air Quality Management District has recommended that air pollution regulations more strongly reflect the region’s economic needs.

The commission, made up of business representatives, city officials and environmentalists, and headed by two of the district’s board members, based its findings on testimony from business and other operations regulated for smog. The commission did not independently verify the claims of hardship.

Nevertheless, the panel recommended that the AQMD establish an ombudsman for the regulated community, reduce fines on first-time corporate offenders, aim to raise more revenue from taxes and fees on motorists rather than on business, and remove or reduce requirements on employers to spur workers to car-pool. In general, the panel leans in favor of making drivers, rather than business, bear the burden of fighting smog.

The report by the Special Commission on Air Quality and the Economy was based on a series of public hearings attended largely by business representatives. It concluded that many of those regulated, including business, schools and individuals, perceive that air pollution requirements have an “unnecessarily harsh economic impact.”

“This perception alone can have a fundamental impact on the air basin’s business climate and public support for air quality programs,” the report said.

A blistering dissenting report from two of the commission’s 38 members complains that the recommended measures would squander the district’s limited funds and place corporate concerns above public health needs.

“This is part of a very systematic effort to undermine environmental regulation in California,” said commissioner Eric Mann, a community activist. “The board is under a lot of pressure from business.”

Asking business to help set smog rules is akin to asking “the Ku Klux Klan to set civil rights policy,” Mann said.

Air quality district staff members, who write the rules and regulations and were strongly criticized by business during the hearings, gave reporters their report to the commission and made public Tuesday measures they are taking to reduce the burden of regulations on small business.

James M. Lents, executive officer of the district, said staff would support some of the commission’s recommendations and oppose others. Among those he criticized was the creation of an ombudsman that would report directly to the board.

“The idea of an ombudsman is just trying to set up a fight with the staff,” Lents said in an interview. “If the staff is not doing their job, they can get a new administrative officer. I am not like (former Police) Chief Daryl Gates.”

He said industry has adequate opportunities to comment on proposed district actions. “Why there needs to be a paid staff member out there representing industry to the board escapes me,” he said.

He also opposed suggestions in the report to curtail a district program requiring employers to provide incentives for workers to car-pool. The program is achieving some success, he said, and it is mandated by federal and state law.

Lents said he will ask the board Friday to refrain from acting on the report until the staff has had a chance to review it.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett Wieder, a district board member and vice chairwoman of the commission, said she hopes that the AQMD will adopt the recommendations, including the creation of an ombudsman, after the staff review. The AQMD board will then have the option of adopting either the commission’s recommendations or those of the staff.

Business representatives told the commission in hearings that long-term planning was impeded by changing air quality rules and complained about an “anti-business” attitude by district staff. According to the report, some businesses were afraid of testifying for fear of recrimination.

The commission said it received more complaints about the district’s program requiring employers to submit detailed plans to provide economic and other incentives for worker car pools than any other district policy. It urged the board to investigate substitute measures and seek changes in a state law requiring such incentives.

Among those it suggested were expanded public education programs to get Southern Californians out of their cars, more vehicle inspections and higher gas prices. Lents, however, noted that the state Legislature has been reluctant to raise gas taxes.

The commission also said the district should develop market incentives for reducing air pollution rather than just threatening fines for noncompliance.

Regulated operations should be encouraged to present alternatives to staff proposals, and the district should consider establishing different rules for different parts of Southern California to reflect varying economic and air quality conditions, the commission said.

The district also should work with the Legislature to develop more stable funding from such sources as gasoline taxes or higher vehicle registration fees and examine “whether specific allocations of permit fees impose undue burdens on individual firms and industries,” the report said.

One environmentalist on the commission, Tom Soto of the Coalition for Clean Air, said he could not attend most of the hearings because the panel refused to schedule them for the evening. He said he had not read the report.

Another, Jim Jenal of Citizens for a Better Environment, joined the dissenting report. But Dr. Robert Zweig of the American Lung Assn., another commissioner, said he supports the recommendations because they will “make it easier for more people to be heard.”

“I don’t think we will end up with worse smog,” he said.