VILLA PARK : Council Denounces Federal Clean Air Plan

The City Council has denounced a proposed plan by the federal government to require planes, ships, railroads and trucks throughout the nation to have stronger anti-emission controls.

The council last week unanimously passed a resolution urging President Clinton to halt the Federal Clean Air Implementation Plan. The plan is scheduled to become effective by executive order Feb. 15.

In its resolution, the council charged that the federal plan would remove “local control over air quality issues and transfer them to the federal government.” The council also asserted that the federal plan would “cost the Los Angeles area economy alone $35 billion, eliminate 345,000 jobs and disproportionately harm small businesses, minorities and economically disadvantaged people.”

The council said it supports efforts to make the nation’s air cleaner and safer. But in its resolution, the council argued that the Administration’s plan “proposes unattainable standards” for the state’s industries.

School districts would be among the economic victims of the clean air plan, according to the resolution, costing them more than $600 million by “rendering most school buses obsolete.”