Air Board Targets Utility Vehicles, Minivans, Pickups

California air quality officials unveiled a proposal Tuesday that for the first time anywhere would subject light trucks, minivans and most sport utility vehicles to the same strict smog controls as passenger cars.

If approved by the California Air Resources Board, the regulations would require the auto industry to develop and install sophisticated new pollution control equipment starting in 2004 for those vehicles, which have so grown in popularity that they account for nearly as many sales as cars.

Heavier trucks, those weighing more than 7,000 pounds, would continue to be exempt from passenger car standards.

The proposed new regulations--announced at a two-day Air Resources Board workshop in the agency’s El Monte office--will not be voted on by the board for another year. But their mere introduction drew an immediate attack from a well-organized contingent of auto industry executives, well aware of California’s pioneering role in setting air quality standards.

What’s more, about 10% of the nation’s cars and trucks are sold in California.

At issue is the soaring market in pickups and sport utility vehicles, or “SUVs,” which have evolved from being the low-cost workhorses of farms and ranches into stylish--and often costly--transportation for suburban families.

As the sales have surged, however, air quality officials here and in Washington have become concerned about the nation’s ability to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, especially in highly polluted areas such as Southern California.

Under existing state standards, light trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles are allowed to emit up to three times the amount of smog-forming chemicals as passenger cars.

With Tuesday’s proposal, the air quality board becomes the first state or federal agency to formally challenge the emissions exemptions for the “light truck” category of vehicles.

An official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who was at the workshop, said the federal government is still trying to decide what to do.

“We know we want to narrow the gap [between passenger cars and light trucks], but by how much we don’t know,” said John M. German, senior technical advisor to the EPA’s Vehicle Programs and Compliance Division.

“We haven’t decided whether to bring the standard down to the passenger car level like California wants to, or whether to come down in between passenger cars and the current standard for light trucks,” German said.

As soon as air board staff members outlined the proposed new regulations, a dozen auto industry representatives rose--with charts and other exhibits--to deliver an hourlong rebuttal coordinated by the American Automobile Manufacturers Assn.

Leading off for the opposition, association spokesman Steve Douglas said the regulations would be costly to consumers and virtually impossible for the industry to comply with by 2004.

Douglas urged the board to postpone its November 1998 deadline for adopting the new rules “to provide for critical testing” of emissions control technology.

The California initiative could have broad policy implications. States are allowed now to either adopt federal clean air standards or California standards. The Northeast states have followed California’s lead in adopting a mandate for future sales of zero-emission vehicles--electric cars--and could do the same with the tougher light truck emissions standards in their desire to meet federal clean air mandates.

Historically, light trucks and sport utility vehicles were regulated more leniently than passenger cars because they were designed to pull trailers, haul heavy loads and travel off-road--and thus run hotter, burn more fuel and emit more pollutants than passenger cars.

But the board’s report noted that as minivans and sport utilities have become surrogate station wagons, they have gone from accounting for 20% of all vehicle sales nationally in 1980 to almost 46% in 1997.

“This trend has a substantial impact on California’s air quality because, although these vehicles are used as passenger cars, they are certified to the more lenient gram per mile emission standards designed for work trucks,” the report said in defending the proposed regulations.

The air board’s staff took issue with the industry contention that smog control equipment in these vehicles cannot be as efficient as in conventional passenger cars because of the heavier stress placed on the catalytic converters--which filter out pollutants--in the lighttrucks and sport utility vehicles.

“Due to advancements in emission control technologies,” the report states, “it is now estimated that emission levels from the category of vehicles can be lowered to that of passenger cars and that these emission levels can be maintained for the useful life of the vehicles.”

The air board staff turned to the industry for suggestions on how to regulate the vehicles in such a manner that people who still use them the old-fashioned way--for hauling and towing in work--are not penalized.

“We are looking for a proposal from the industry that would distinguish a working vehicle from a passenger vehicle,” said Steve Albu, chief of engineering studies for the board.

So far, though, industry representatives see no way of doing that. And they worry that the pollution controls could undermine the appeal of the sport utility vehicles, which is based on their rough-and-ready image--in other words on the heft and horsepower that drives up emissions.

“The problem is controlling usage,” said Alan R. Weaverstad, manager of vehicle emissions activities for General Motors. “Part of the image the customer wants is ruggedness.”

Weaverstad acknowledged that advertising heavily promotes that image, but said that the ads were “merely picking up on trends rather than creating them.”

The new regulations for light trucks were part of a package of emission reduction strategies spelled out at the workshop, which drew not only domestic and foreign auto industry representatives, but government regulators and environmentalists from across the country.

Another proposal seeks to cut back on the allowable levels of two smog-forming elements--particulate matter and nitrogen oxides--in vehicle exhaust.

A GM spokesman, Kevin Cullen, complained that the measure “would preclude sales of diesels” in California at a time when the auto industry in partnership with the Department of Energy is researching how to perfect diesel engines.

These engines have the potential to make gas-guzzling SUVs considerably more fuel efficient while reducing their emissions of carbon monoxide, which contribute to global warming. But diesel emissions are high in nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.

Although much of Tuesday’s workshop was consumed by the barrage of criticism from the auto industry representatives, some jabs went the other way. Board officials complained that the industry seemed most interested in designing ever larger sport utility vehicles--only aggravating pollution problems.

“It seems you are going to make more and more of these vehicles that undermine our air quality,” said Albu, the board engineer. “We are not hearing much about what you plan to do to make things better.”

Albu said he was particularly troubled by Ford’s plans for an extra-large sport utility vehicle that could function as a passenger car but would be heavy enough when fully loaded, over 8,500 pounds, that it would be exempt from even the new emissions regulations.

“Why should we give up our air quality,” he asked, “so they can produce even larger vehicles with even dirtier emissions?”

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Smog Check

Under a new proposal, sport utility vehicles and light trucks would have to match passenger car emission levels. Current standards:

Grams per mile hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides

Sport utility vehicles

Light-duty trucks

Cars

Source: California Air Resources Board