Clinton Aide Appointed to Try to Restart Smog Talks : Negotiations: White House intervenes to get the EPA and state officials back to work on a compromise to reform the system.

The White House acted Friday to end the impasse between California and the federal Environmental Protection Administration over reform of vehicle smog checks by ordering a top environmental official to try to fashion a compromise.

“From the White House point of view, we just want to see the Legislature pass a law that meets the requirements of the Clean Air Act and the sooner the better,” said Tom Epstein, special assistant to the President for political affairs.

Epstein said Mary Nichols, EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation, will attempt to bring the two sides together Tuesday when she visits Sacramento.

Nichols, a longtime smog fighter and a Californian, said that although no meetings with legislators and Wilson Administration officials had been arranged, she will try to restart the talks.

“We’ve put out a whole series of options and there are ways to mix and match the various elements,” she said. “(But) the program that California starts has to be done in a timely manner and it has to clean up the air.”

Negotiations between state representatives over how best to overhaul the state’s automobile Smog Check program and bring California into compliance with federal clean air standards collapsed Jan. 7. Each side blamed the other.

Epstein, President’s Clinton’s adviser on California political issues, said the White House got involved because “this is a very high-profile issue between California and the federal government.”

State Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who spoke privately with White House officials in trying to break the impasse, said they made clear that they are “interested in compromise.”

The extra attention to California occurs at a time when economic recovery of the state is a high priority with Clinton and his reelection strategists.

In California, the same 9,000 service stations and garages that inspect vehicles also make emission system repairs, an arrangement that critics say can result in dirtier air. The federal EPA favors separating the two functions.

But service station operators and their supporters assert that the EPA program would not assure higher quality air but would run them out of business and trigger the loss of about 18,000 jobs.

The state is threatened with an annual loss of about $800 million in U.S. transportation funds this spring if an agreement cannot be reached. Also, if California does not overhaul its Smog Check program, tighter clean air standards could be imposed on other sources of pollution, including industrial plants.

California negotiators claim that the EPA effectively broke off talks with the announcement Jan. 7 that sanctions would be imposed unless an acceptable smog check law was enacted by the Legislature. EPA officials denied that they quit the negotiations, saying they merely started the countdown and wanted talks to continue.

In response, the Legislature dusted off a major smog reform bill that had been parked since last summer and began pushing it toward the desk of Gov. Pete Wilson, who has said he would sign it. EPA officials said the proposal fell far short of meeting federal Clean Air Act requirements, a claim denied by its supporters.

Among other things, the bill would authorize random roadside testing of exhaust emissions, require more training of mechanics, impose stiffer civil and criminal penalties for fraud and ban “gross” emitting vehicles from highways.

Wilson called the bipartisan bill a “common-sense solution that will address air quality but do so in a way that will not impose intolerable burdens on California motorists.”

The bill by Sen. Newton Russell (R-Glendale) was derailed briefly this week by opponent Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), but is scheduled to be debated by the Senate on Thursday.

Hayden told the Rules Committee on Friday that although the bill contains many improvements, it does not meet federal standards and would prolong the controversy without cleaning the air. “We are only digging a hole to bury ourselves in by the passage of this bill,” he said.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), a lead California negotiator who believes that the bill would meet or exceed federal standards, said if negotiations are to be resumed, the “EPA has to put something new on the table and show some flexibility.”