CALIFORNIA COMMENTARY : Regressing to Stone Age on Smog : Death of a bill to reform smog checks would trigger federal sanctions and deny highway funds, putting more jobs at risk.

Sometimes an elected official undertakes a lost cause because it is the right thing to do.

State Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) has introduced legislation to improve the state’s automobile smog-check program. SB 119 is a well-crafted response to Congress’ decision in the Clean Air Act of 1990 to outlaw ineffective smog-check programs. Without this bill, California is headed for a major confrontation with the Environmental Protection Agency. Federal sanctions are likely and would deny funds to the highway system. Also at risk are permits for new industries seeking to locate in the state. Unfortunately, the bill is likely to die in the Transportation Committee on April 20.

State legislative inertia will thus threaten jobs in highway construction and new investment and impose a smog penalty on the health of the public.

The state’s current smog-check program is better than nothing at all, but it is not working nearly as well as it should. The automotive contribution to smog is about 18% less than it would be without the current program. All cars in the state are smog-checked, but the 18% reduction is extracted from just 4% of the total vehicles. The culprit is the state’s decentralized inspection program, which now supports 9,000 shops and 21,000 employees, who as a group oppose reform. There are many dedicated workers and a few well-run shops, but the smog-check program is rife with inefficiencies, some of which stem from the measurement system, and many of which stem from fraud on the part of motorists and mechanics. Money to police the system has been increased in vain: The dimensions of the problem outstrip the policing abilities of the air agencies. More important, the point of a smog-check program is neither to foster an ineffectual program as welfare for the smog-check shops nor to throw derelict smog-checkers in jail. The point is to have a system that cleans the air and protects the public health. The current system does not do that.

Congress has said that states can regulate their inspection programs as they wish, but must demonstrate effectiveness “equal to centralized testing.” That means taking one’s car every two years to a drive-through facility where emissions will be measured in a “loaded mode”: The wheels will spin on a dynamometer that simulates the resistance encountered on the road. The shop doing the testing would be prohibited from making repairs, thus eliminating the mechanic-client relationships that, though convenient, can become too cozy and keep high-smog cars in use.

The state Legislature commissioned a panel of experts to design a new smog check that would satisfy Congress but preserve some of the jobs and convenience of the current program. SB119 is the panel’s recommendation, and it has passed stringent technical review. The SB119 program does require centralized testing in the state’s worst areas (the Greater Los Angeles area, Kern and Ventura counties, Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno) but allows the fixing and retesting for all but the worst automobiles to be done in state-certified “Gold Shield” shops.

The level of training and expertise in these shops would exceed today’s primitive standards. There would be enough stations to avoid lines and testing fees would be lower than today’s. The maximum repair limits would be lower than stipulated by Congress ($375 versus $450), but “gross-emitting” cars that could not be fixed would be forced to be sold out-of-state or to a scrappage program after two years. The minority of high-smog vehicles that cause 40% of the total smog would be retired. Though some members of today’s ineffective program would lose their jobs, more thorough enforcement would increase total employment in vehicle repairs.

In these recessionary times, Sen. Presley’s colleagues are unlikely to give SB119 committee approval. The governor shares this reluctance and keeps the Air Resources Board from endorsing a bill it knows is one of the cheapest and most effective smog-control measures available. To defend a few thousand ineffective smog-check jobs, expensive alternative controls would have to be levied on other industrial emissions. The EPA is likely to invoke sanctions, as it did to force the current smog-check program through the Legislature in 1982.

The Clean Air Act of 1990 was a great step forward for the environment. It is within the terms of that act for the EPA to negotiate with California over an acceptable smog-check reform. SB119 begins that process by offering a system designed by Californians for Californians. Killing the bill in committee will neither clean up the air nor cause the congressional mandate to go away.