Politicians Can’t Even Agree on Smog

Of the thousands of issues that cloud the skies over Capitol Hill, you’d think that California’s fractious congressional delegation could get together on just this one: smog.

You might think that. But you’d be wrong.

As if the state didn’t have trouble enough, the Clinton Administration has told Gov. Pete Wilson that California stands to lose more than $1.5 billion in federal transportation aid, beginning this November, if it doesn’t adopt a new, tougher auto emission testing system. So far, Wilson and the state Legislature have refused to go along.

The feds’ key complaint is that California permits the same service station operators who test tailpipes for pollutants to repair the cars they’ve tested, and retest the cars after the repairs are finished. That inherent conflict of interest promotes fraud and abuse, not to mention dirty air, the feds insist.

Wilson argues that a new system of centralized, test-only facilities would force 1,300 “test and repair” service stations to close their doors, idling another 3,000 California workers.

*

The upshot has been a war of words between the state’s Republican and Democratic members of Congress, who are accusing each other of kowtowing to various special interests, including Big Oil and Big Brother, at the expense of the citizens of California.

Two weeks ago, 18 California Republicans shot off a letter to Carol M. Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in which they predicted dire economic consequences if the federal government has its way. Be flexible, they urged the administrator.

“Every job is important to us,” said Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), a conservative who is not one of President Clinton’s biggest fans. Dornan is leading the charge against the EPA on the smog test issue, along with Rep. David Dreier (R-LaVerne).

“Why, for partisan reasons, pick out the state that is setting the environmental standards for the whole nation,” Dornan said in an interview, “and then use extortion to tell us to eliminate these 3,000 jobs or lose our highway funds? That is extortion.”

The combative Republican suggested that Clinton would just as soon see California lose some more jobs, thus softening up Republican Wilson for a Democratic challenger in 1994. Democrats, Dornan said, “are just drooling” over the prospect of taking over the governor’s mansion.

*

The same day that Dornan and company wrote to Browner, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), one of the principal authors of the Clean Air Act, and 17 other Democrats, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, dispatched their own letter to Wilson.

“We are surprised . . . by your failure to recognize the serious shortcomings” in California’s auto inspection and maintenance program, the Democrats told Wilson, adding that they understood that “certain interests” might oppose any change in policy. The state should get on with the business of adopting a new, “test-only” program to comply with the EPA demand, the members said.

Democratic congressional aides allowed, privately, of course, that the phrase “certain interests” was a not-so-veiled reference to a major oil company that they say is poised to set up its own network of “test and repair” smog shops.

As for the opposition of his Republican colleagues, Waxman said: “I think they don’t understand how the law works. . . . This shouldn’t be partisan and it shouldn’t be particularly political.”

The congressman added: “I don’t think it’s a matter of discretion with the EPA, I think it’s a matter of enforcing the law. And Wilson (when he was a senator) and Dornan and Dreier all voted for it.”

Congressional aides said the Republicans may be experiencing a severe case of buyer’s remorse.

“They don’t like environmental protection. They don’t like the Clean Air Act. And they don’t like the EPA, so naturally they say we shouldn’t be doing these things,” one said.

*

“I suppose it depends on one’s view of how to best support the state of California,” said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who has proposed some smog fighting alternatives of his own.

“The thrust of the (Dornan-Dreier) letter that I . . . signed is to maintain the highway funding that California presently receives.”

Referring to Waxman and the other Democrats, he added: “If one takes the side of the federal government in a dispute with California, I think that speaks for itself.”

How far the brinkmanship will go is anyone’s guess. But Browner and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena made it clear that they are prepared to start holding up the federal dollars beginning Nov. 15. Until then, Californians have a ringside seat to the latest wrangle among a delegation that seems destined to remain split even on issues central to the state’s environmental and economic health.