No on 7, a Blunt Instrument

After years of angry debate over the very real dangers posed by diesel exhaust and strategies for cutting those emissions, a broad coalition of environmental, electric power companies, trucking and high technology firms has come together in support of Proposition 7. This initiative on the Nov. 3 ballot offers “carrots” in the form of tax credits to businesses that adopt cleaner technologies rather than brandishing regulatory “sticks” when companies don’t move quickly enough.

This idea has much merit, but the whopping price tag attached to this measure, compared with a similar but more modest program that the Legislature has already approved, is troublesome. Moreover, some of these air remedies are of questionable value and the fact that the industry groups that financed this initiative will most directly benefit if it passes should give voters pause. We urge a no vote.

Proposition 7 would award about $2.3 billion in tax credits over the next 11 years to private industry and agriculture to fight smog, especially by cleaning up the dirtiest and oldest diesel trucks and buses.

The tax credits, up to $218 million annually, would be handed out for cutting other emissions too, including pollution from locomotives, ships, construction machinery and agricultural waste burning. The state Air Resources Board and local air districts would award these credits, which could go to the manufacturers of clean air products as well as the suppliers and purchasers.

The Legislature this year approved a $25-million program aimed at encouraging the retrofit of heavy-duty diesel engines or the purchase of cleaner ones. This bill is modest compared with Proposition 7. But while the danger posed by diesel emissions to the environment and public health is clear, the best technological fixes aren’t so obvious. Let’s first see if tax credits on a smaller scale will produce cleaner air before committing billions. These trade-offs require deliberation and nuanced legislation, not the blunt instrument of this initiative.