ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Honda Unveils Clean-Burning Car: The Japanese car maker announced at the L.A. Auto Show that it will market a gasoline-powered car that meets the Ultra Low Emission Vehicle exhaust standards of the state Air Resources Board two years before the deadline. The standard, part of the state’s series of mandates to lower air pollution from vehicles, requires such extremely low-polluting cars in auto makers’ California fleets by model year 2000. Though a Chrysler natural-gas-powered minivan has already been certified by the ARB as such a vehicle, it had to meet less stringent standards than the Honda, which has been ARB-tested but not yet certified. Auto experts consider it significant that such low emissions--90% below current standards--can be reached with a gasoline engine. Detroit auto makers have said they couldn’t meet this standard with a gasoline car at conventional prices, which Honda said it expects to do.