Electric Cars

* The stated intent of the California Air Resources Board to suspend its requirement for the sale of exhaust-free cars until 2003 (Dec. 22) is another indication that, in the Wilson administration, the wishes of big-money lobbyists count more than those of the taxpayers. This reader wonders if any of the ARB members live in the Los Angeles Basin, home of the dirtiest air in the country.

Unlike the Midwest’s industrial cities, where the majority of air pollutants come from factories, not cars, smog in the Los Angeles Basin is driven by automobile emissions. Cut the number of gasoline-burning cars on the freeways and you cut smog proportionally.

The auto industry has shown time and again that technology will not be developed unless there is a profit motive. The ARB is planning to take away the profit motive for the development of electric car technology for five years, and you can bet that the Big Three and oil companies will be pushing for another five years after that.

DAVID A. SPENCER

Glendale