Touting a Telecommuting Trade-Off

Hoping to breathe new life into telecommuting efforts, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta kicked off a campaign in Los Angeles on Tuesday to offer smog emissions credits to businesses that get more of their employees to work from home.

Under the national pilot program, which is expected to begin by the end of the year, businesses that earn the credits can use them to meet air-quality requirements or sell them to other companies.

“By encouraging telecommuting, we mitigate traffic congestion, reduce fuel consumption, improve air quality and enhance your business,” Mineta said at a news conference attended by dozens of local transportation and environmental officials.

Details of the program have yet to be worked out but, if successful, the project could add a profitable new incentive for employers to keep their workers at home and off the overburdened freeways.

Telecommuting appears to have lost its steam in the last decade, primarily due to the resistance of employers who say that it breeds resentment among co-workers and that telecommuters are harder to monitor, according to experts.

In Southern California, only 8.6% of all employees have the opportunity to telecommute, according to a survey by the Southern California Assn. of Governments. That is down significantly from the 12.5% of employees who were allowed to telecommute in 1994.

Although other surveys show telecommuting is on the rise nationwide, local officials say there are no recent statistics that describe the telecommuting trend in Southern California.

The two-year pilot program, known as “E commute,” is also being set up in Denver, Washington, Houston and Philadelphia.

Businesses participating in the program will be able to use a special computer program to calculate how much smog they reduce each day by allowing employees to work at home. The program will take into consideration how many employees work at home, how far they typically drive and what type of vehicle they drive.

In Southern California, only those large companies that already meet their air-emissions requirements can qualify to earn extra smog emissions credits to sell.

“E commute represents an innovative means in which employers can contribute to relieving traffic congestion and improving our air,” said Ronald Bates, a Los Alamitos councilman and past president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

In the next six months, the association, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and other agencies will try to recruit 40 to 50 companies for the program. Once they have been trained on how to use the software, officials at the AQMD will determine whether the firms qualify for smog credits.

Companies with extra smog credits can trade or sell them at the trading system known as RECLAIM, for Regional Clean Air Incentives Market. The price of a smog credit fluctuates based on supply and demand, but in recent years, the robust economy and better air quality in Southern California have sent the price of such credits soaring.

“We hope this type of incentive keeps on giving,” said Mary Brooks Beatty of the National Environmental Policy Institute. “As long as you are continuing to telework, you continue to get credits.”