Suit Seeks to Force MTA to Use Anti-Diesel Ads

The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the MTA on Thursday in a dispute over the placement of “full-wrap” bus ads warning the public about the hazards of diesel bus fumes.

In a Los Angeles federal court lawsuit, the council accused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its advertising agency of trying to exercise unconstitutional control over the content of the proposed ad.

The ad depicts a dirty gray bus with skeletons covering the windows and messages on the sides reading “Diesel Kills” and “Support a Ban on Diesel Buses.”

The council said it wants to run the ad for two months this summer when air pollution is at its worst to bring public pressure to bear on the MTA to buy buses that rely on cleaner-burning fuels.

Paul L. Hoffman, who filed the suit on behalf of the environmental group, said the MTA insisted on a contract that would have given the agency the right to reject or remove the ad based on its content.

He accused the transit agency and its advertising firm, Transportation Displays Inc., of violating the council’s constitutional rights to free speech, due process and equal protection.

The MTA’s lawyer, Assistant County Counsel Steven Carnevale, said the council had “refused to sign our contract which gives [us] some control over what the ads look like.”

When the group sent back the contract, he said, it had deleted all provisions which give the MTA some say over the content of the ads. He said the MTA’s position is that until “you sign the contract, we don’t have anything to talk about.”

Offering a personal opinion, Carnevale said “all the skeletons in the window” of the bus depicted in the ad could encourage people to stay off the MTA’s buses.

Although many of the older buses in the fleet are diesel powered, the transit agency is buying buses powered by clean-burning, compressed natural gas.

Under pressure from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and environmental groups citing mounting evidence that diesel emissions can cause cancer, the MTA board last year rejected an effort to order buses powered by diesel engines.

But because of the need to reduce overcrowding and increase the number of buses, the MTA is converting its troubled ethanol-powered buses to diesel.

The plaintiff’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts on Thursday for a temporary restraining order to force the MTA to accept the ads without delay. Letts rejected the request, but set a hearing for July 2 to consider the motion for a preliminary injunction.