State to Hold Sport Utilities to Same Smog Rules as Cars
California’s most popular new generation of vehicles--sport utilities, pickups and minivans--will no longer be allowed to pollute the air more than conventional cars under new standards unanimously adopted Thursday by the state Air Resources Board.
Under the new rules, which will start phasing in with the 2004 model year, new cars sold in California--already the cleanest in the world--will be 75% cleaner on average. New models will be allowed to release only a fraction of a gram of smog-causing nitrogen oxides every mile they are driven.
The new rules will affect all new cars. But the most controversial aspect of Thursday’s decision is the elimination of the separate, less-stringent emissions standard for California’s truck-like cars. Now, most sport utility vehicles release 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 times more pollution than cars.
The new limits will be fairly easy for auto makers to meet for most cars and for vehicles such as the Ford Explorer or Plymouth Voyager because of improvements in electronics and catalysts. But the target is tougher for the largest vehicles--General Motors’ Suburbans, Dodge Rams, Chevrolet Sierras and Ford’s Expeditions and F-Series pickups.
Auto manufacturers and influential California business groups contend that the rules are severe and unrealistic and could mean that consumers will no longer be able to buy the larger vehicles that can tow heavy boats or haul heavy equipment.
Kelly Jensen, chief legislative advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce, said it was “arbitrary and illogical” to force heavier vehicles to meet the same standards as regular cars.
But Air Resources Board Chairman John Dunlap said the auto makers’ arguments had little credibility. The industry has made similar warnings about past emission standards that have consistently been proved wrong.
Board member Lynne Edgerton said the panel “feels confident there will be no reduction in the variety and performance of sport utility vehicles available.”
State officials estimate the cost to the auto industry at $326 million over the life of the project. If passed on to the consumer, the expense would raise the price of all kinds of vehicles an average of $107, the board said. But the auto industry says the cost could be many times higher for some large vehicles.
EPA Studying Similar Standards for U.S.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is watching California’s decision closely because it is considering similar standards for vehicles in the rest of the country.
The decision came after a hearing in El Monte that lasted more than eight hours Thursday. The board voted 11-0 to adopt the new requirements, which will mean that California in its quest for cleaner air will once again lead the world in setting stringent automotive standards.
The new limits on cars are the first to be set in more than eight years, and they push technology to the point where emissions of a new gasoline-powered car will be as close to zero as possible--almost as clean as an electric car.
As recently as a few years ago, engineers thought internal combustion engines could not possibly get much cleaner than they are today, but advances in software that improve fuel combustion have far exceeded expectations.
Almost half of all new cars purchased by consumers are pickups, sport utilities or minivans, prompting concerns among air quality officials that the explosion in sales of larger vehicles could reverse hard-fought gains in cleaning the air.
Already more than 7 million of them are owned by Californians, and auto makers see no letup.
“Consumers are going for trucks, the bigger the better,” said Peter Welch, who represents an association of California car dealers.
Big Three Lobbied State Officials Heavily
For months, the Big Three--General Motors, Ford and Chrysler--had intensely lobbied the Wilson administration’s air quality aides to exempt their big vehicles and trucks. They even offered to clean up the rest of the vehicles more than required as long as they got a reprieve on the largest trucks, which constitute 15% of their fleet.
But the board, led for the last time by Dunlap, rejected the industry’s proposal because it would have eliminated 10% less pollution. The decision means that Gov. Pete Wilson leaves office with a high-profile pro-environment stance in California’s long, costly and contentious battle against smog.
“This provides a clear framework for the future. I really think we’re coming to the end of the line for what we can expect from the auto makers,” Dunlap said.
Environmentalists endorsed the new standards, saying the board closed a long-standing loophole that allows truck-like vehicles to pollute more. They were especially pleased that the board, at the last minute, decided to make it almost impossible after 2006 for auto makers to introduce new, diesel-powered sport utility vehicles and cars in California, as several companies have been planning to do. Diesel is dirtier, but more fuel-efficient, than gasoline.
The new standards go a long way toward helping California combat its smog problem. The changes will eliminate 57 tons of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons per day in the Los Angeles Basin out of the 310 tons daily that now come from passenger vehicles and light trucks. Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons react in sunlight to form ozone, the main component of smog.
Auto engineers contend that because the larger trucks are designed to haul heavy loads, their engines must put out dirtier exhausts. Even if most urban Californians don’t carry anything heavier than a soccer team in their sport utility vehicles, the engines are still designed to work harder.
The car makers say the sport utilities and pickups straight off the assembly line could probably meet the new standards, but it will be extremely challenging to make the anti-smog equipment last for 120,000 miles--the warranty required by the new rules. A 100,000-mile warranty is now required.
Kelly Brown, Ford’s director of vehicle environmental engineering, said he has learned to “never say never” when it comes to the auto industry’s ability to meet California’s standards because progress in cleaning up exhaust has repeatedly surpassed the industry’s expectations. But, he added, “Today we have very serious concerns, especially for the largest trucks.”
Ford has the cleanest sport utility vehicles on the road, with its 1999 Expeditions, Explorers and other models qualifying as low-emission cars. But the other auto makers, especially GM, have more work to do to meet the new standards.
“We’re talking very dramatic reductions in emissions,” said Kevin Cullen of GM. He said meeting the new mandate is “a punishing workload” for the company.
To address industry’s questions about big vehicles, the air board’s engineers equipped Ford Expeditions with redesigned catalysts and found they could meet the new standards. If state officials could do it on their own, the auto companies’ experts certainly can perfect the technology over the next eight years, air board officials argue.
The new regulation requires all vehicles that weigh less than 8,500 pounds--the weight of the largest sport utility vehicles--to meet the new standards. Air board officials doubt that the auto makers would try to beat the weight limit because the fuel efficiency of a 9,000-pound vehicle would be so low.
Also, the board decided to allow gasoline-powered vehicles to qualify as “super-low-emission vehicles” and grant them partial credit toward meeting the state’s quota for electric cars, which starts in four years.
Environmentalists criticized those new credits, saying even super-clean gasoline vehicles are dirtier than electric cars because many motorists do not properly maintain their vehicles.
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Cleaner Cars
New cars--including sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks--must reduce smog-causing nitrogen oxides an average of 75% compared with the cleanest 1998 cars. Hydrocarbon emissions also must be cut. The new mandate applies to 25% of car models in 2004, increasing to all new 2007 model-year cars sold.
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Car Make and Model Hydrocarbons* Nitrogen Oxides* 1998 Ford Expedition 0.080 0.1 1998 GM Suburban 0.084 0.4 1998 Lexus LX470 0.088 0.3 1998 Plymouth Voyager 0.078 0.2 1998 Toyota 4-Runner 0.116 0.2 1998 Mercury Villager 0.160 0.3 1998 Isuzu Rodeo 0.081 0.4 1998 Chevy Malibu 0.048 0.1 1998 Honda Accord 0.025 0.1 New 2004-2007 standard 0.040 0.05
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* grams per mile
SOURCE: AIR RESOURCES BOARD
