East Copies California Smog Curbs : Pollution: EPA approves request by 12 states from Virginia to Maine that low-emission standards be imposed. Move is effort to comply with federal Clean Air Act.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday took a major step toward bringing cleaner cars to 12 Eastern states by approving use of California’s stringent pollution controls from Virginia to Maine.

“We are pleased that the EPA has successfully completed this step toward getting cleaner air in our region,” said Timothy Keeney, head of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and a member of the Ozone Transport Commission, a group of state environmental commissioners designated by the 12 governors to clean up the region’s smoggy air.

Under the plan, which requires approval by the individual states, cars, beginning with 1999 models, will have 70% less emissions than today’s new cars in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and the District of Columbia, according to the EPA.

The plan for the Eastern states is modeled after California’s low-emission vehicle standards, adopted in 1990, which call for slashing smog-forming gases from cars sold between 1994 and 2003. The states, however, did not request permission to adopt the most controversial component of California’s standards--a mandate for sales of mass-produced electric cars beginning in 1998.

The committee of 12 states requested EPA approval to adopt California’s special standards because they face a mandate under the federal Clean Air Act to clean up ozone, a caustic urban pollutant that forms mainly from motor vehicle exhaust. Eleven of the 12 states violate the health standard for ozone and must clean up their air or face a freeze on federal highway funding.

“They asked for it and we’ve given it to them and now the ball is back in their court,” said Nancy Sutley, special assistant to EPA Administrator Carol Browner. “We had to make a technical finding that they needed (these standards). There were a lot of different positions on whether this is the best way to go.”

To meet low-emission standards, cars will have to be fueled either by alternative fuels such as natural gas, or equipped with such new devices as electrically heated catalysts that dramatically cut fumes from gasoline-powered engines.

The decision is a boost to companies and utilities that support alternative fuels and to California air-quality officials, who for years have been under pressure to scale back their standards that require new automotive technologies.

While it appears something of a setback for the automobile industry, which has fought a regional approach to pollution controls and prefers national standards, Browner said an industry proposal is still under consideration.

Under that plan, cars that produce less pollution than now, though more than the amount permitted by California, would be sold in all 49 states other than California. It would override regional requirements.

“We believe this broader agreement would be the most sensible and cost-effective way of bringing clean air to Americans,” Browner said in a statement. “EPA will continue to convene and support negotiations toward this broader agreement.”

Representing Detroit’s Big Three auto makers, the American Automobile Manufacturers Assn. said in a statement Monday that the “EPA is sending a strong signal to the newly elected governors in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that one of their first priorities in office must be to tackle this issue.”

The auto manufacturers group estimates that the new 12-state standards would add about $800 to the sticker price of a new car beginning with 1999 models, compared to $576 under their proposal for a 49-state approach.

EPA officials were forced to act this month on the states’ plan, which was proposed in February, 1993, because Massachusetts and some environmental groups threatened to sue. But by simultaneously announcing that the EPA will still work toward an alternative agreement, Browner tried to appease the auto industry.

“This move will mean cleaner air in the Northeast,” Alfred Munzer, a former president of the American Lung Assn., told Associated Press. “It will help reduce the health threat that air pollution poses for children, the elderly and many other vulnerable members of the population, especially those with lung disease.”