Wilson Urges Elimination of U.S. Smog Plan : Pollution: Key congressman is pushing legislation. But EPA contends change is unnecessary because state has two years to develop its own clean-air rules.

Answering an impassioned plea from Gov. Pete Wilson, a powerful congressman pledged Thursday that special legislation to spare California from a court-ordered federal smog plan is on the fast track in the Republican-led Congress.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) is drafting a narrowly focused change in the 1990 Clean Air Act that would eliminate the Clinton Administration’s wide-ranging anti-smog plan for the Los Angeles Basin and Ventura and Sacramento counties.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner told the subcommittee Thursday that she considers the legislation unnecessary because the EPA has agreed to delay enforcement of the federal measures for two years while the state implements its own plan. But Browner said the Clinton Administration would not oppose the legislation.

Facing a court order based on an outdated version of the Clean Air Act to take over smog control in California, the Clinton Administration has repeatedly said its implementation plan is a backup to be used only if the state fails to impose its own rules. The final version of the plan is to be unveiled Tuesday.

But Wilson, Republican lawmakers and some business leaders say the plan’s mere existence sends a confusing signal to California businesses, leaving some reluctant to remain or build in a region where the rules might change once the two-year stay expires.

“The application of this law in California is a classic example of what outrages average people about the federal government these days,” Wilson told a commerce subcommittee that oversees the Clean Air Act. “Californians don’t need the federal government telling us that we can only drive on four out of five days or that trucks can only make one stop while passing through California.”

At issue is a court order holding California to an array of federal measures required by the 1977 Clean Air Act that virtually all parties--from the EPA to the state to environmentalists--agree duplicates the efforts of a less disruptive state plan drafted in November.

Although Congress amended the act in 1990, setting later deadlines for states to come up with plans to meet federal health standards, an appeals court ruled that the EPA must impose strict rules on California because the state had failed to comply with the older law.

The Wilson Administration failed Monday to persuade U.S. District Judge Harry Hupp to delay the federal plan’s publication for 15 months. The judge said that he is bound by the appeals court ruling and that Congress is the only recourse.

In case the legislation fails, the Wilson Administration took the unusual step Thursday of filing a motion with the appeals court to order the federal judge to reopen the case.

California environmentalists say Lewis’ proposal goes too far by eliminating the federal plan instead of just delaying its publication. They fear that if the court-ordered plan is killed, the EPA might back down from its role in helping California clean its air by setting national pollution standards for interstate trucks, trains, airlines and ships.

The federal plan “is an insurance policy that the federal government will do its share,” said Dennis Zane of the Coalition for Clean Air, which filed the lawsuit that forced the EPA to create the federal plan.

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A cautious minuet now begins in Congress as Lewis and other lawmakers struggle to find precise language that will relieve California of federal control while safeguarding a Clean Air Act lauded by Browner as “the most successful environmental program since cities started treating their sewage. . . . Millions of people are breathing cleaner, healthier air.”

Several governors and other opponents of the landmark environmental law are pushing to use California’s situation as a reason to reopen and gut the Clean Air Act. Several bills seeking to overhaul the act have already been introduced.

But Wilson told the subcommittee Thursday that he does not advocate other changes in the clean-air law. Lewis, who heads a subcommittee that oversees the EPA’s budget, agreed that he is not seeking to alter the 1990 Clean Air Act.

It is unclear whether even narrowly drawn legislative language would attract bipartisan support. Some Democrats say the EPA’s promise of a two-year reprieve gives California sufficient relief, and critics questioned Wilson’s motives, accusing him of subscribing to the latest fad in Washington--slamming the federal government.

Calling the battle over the federal plan a “red herring,” Zane encouraged Wilson to shift his focus to implementing his Administration’s clean-air plan and invited him to participate in negotiations between environmentalists and the trucking industry on cleaning up diesel exhaust.

“We invite the governor home to meet and work on clean air issues with us,” Zane said. “We’ll even meet him at the airport.”

Fiore reported from Washington, Cone from Los Angeles.