Alternatives Sought to Ride-Share Rules

Ventura County smog control officials are poised to ask the federal government next week to give local employers alternative ways to reduce air pollution, rather than forcing employees into ride-sharing programs.

If approved at Tuesday’s meeting, the county’s Air Pollution Control Board will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for some flexibility in the federally mandated program to promote car pools, riding bicycles or walking to work.

Richard Baldwin, the county’s air pollution control officer, said businesses with at least 100 employees would still have keep their “trip-reduction programs”--those designed to reduce the number of drivers showing up to work alone in their cars.

“But it would allow companies to come up with other ways to meet air emission reductions,” Baldwin said, such as subsidizing clean-burning vehicles for their employees or buying old, heavily polluting vehicles to get them off the road.

Mandatory ride-sharing programs have been among the most controversial steps taken to help Ventura County, Los Angeles and other areas meet federal health standards for air pollution.

Although Gov. Pete Wilson signed a law this week to scrap such programs, the state law has no influence over Ventura County or other areas that fail to meet federal smog standards and face penalties for failing to promote car pooling, according to Baldwin and EPA officials.

“It is a federal mandate that they have ride-sharing programs, so this state law doesn’t apply,” said EPA spokesman Arnold Robbins.

Congress has the power to ditch the program. Right now, lawmakers are mulling two bills--including a rider on a spending bill that must be passed this year--that could end the EPA’s enforcement of such car-pooling programs.