New Federal Vehicle Smog Rules Due

The Clinton administration today will announce stricter pollution controls on new cars, including popular sport-utility vehicles, and production of cleaner gasoline, according to sources briefed on the plan. The new EPA regulations won’t have any impact in California, however, where state “LEV II” standards adopted in November 1998 already equal or exceed the federal controls. The federal rules will lower the allowable amount of nitrogen oxide emissions for all cars by about 90% and, for the first time in most of the nation, will require SUVs to meet the same pollution limits as cars. Administration officials also said refiners would have to cut the amount of sulfur in gasoline by 90%. A California Air Resources Board spokesman said the state already requires that sulfur in gasoline average no more than 30 parts per million and added that most gas sold in the state registers only 20 parts per million because of pollution incentives. Also, the spokesman said, while the state board’s new low-emission vehicle standards take effect in 2004 (the same time as the proposed EPA rules), California is requiring all auto makers to fully implement them by 2007--two years before the last of the federal rules take hold.