Top Court Ruling as Foul as L.A.’s Air
After much hand-wringing, and a nudge from the United States Supreme Court, I’ve decided my Nissan Sentra was a big mistake.
First of all, I live in a city where style matters, and the Sentra was designed without a single distinctive characteristic. It doesn’t even feel like a car, my boss said recently as we tooled through Echo Park completely unnoticed. It’s like a pod that might be used for space travel.
And then there’s the nation’s highest court, which ruled this week that Southern California is trying entirely too hard to clean up air that ranks as the foulest in the nation.
I suppose I could keep folding myself into a cramped, light, fuel-efficient Nissan. But what’s the point?
Eight out of nine Supreme Court justices wagged a finger at the South Coast Air Quality Management District for requiring private companies to use alternative-fuel vehicles that spew less pollution.
Justice Antonin Scalia explained the ruling, which was cheered by the White House, engine manufacturers and oil companies.
“If one state or political subdivision may enact such rules,” Scalia said, “then so may any other; and the end result would undo Congress’ carefully calibrated regulatory scheme.”
Hallelujah! There’s no telling what irreparable harm would befall the planet if we messed with Congress’ carefully calibrated regulatory system.
If Southern California selfishly insisted on going the extra mile to improve air quality, what would prevent the Bay Area from trying to clean up its smog problem? Or the Central Valley, for that matter? Or Phoenix and Denver?
I have to admit the idea of clean air used to hold some appeal for me. But Ken Lay essentially helped write the nation’s energy policy in a secret meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, right?
And Environmental Protection Agency scientists are complaining that a Bush administration policy threatens air quality at national parks, for crying out loud.
What hope is there?
Besides, I’ve been riding the bus for two months because of an accident that temporarily took my wheels away, so I’ve done my part for conservation. Now that I’m ready to drive again, I don’t want half measures. I want to gas up a two-ton hog and plow through every national park from sea to shining sea.
“I’m going to get the biggest vehicle available,” I told Todd Campbell of the Coalition for Clean Air, explaining that my lowly Sentra was history.
“Well,” Campbell said, “you can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.”
He said responsible citizens should support the fight to require public agencies, if not private companies, to use low-pollution buses, trucks and cars. If we don’t cut emissions by the year 2010, he said, Southern California will lose $12.1 billion in federal transportation funds.
The Los Angeles area has been backsliding on air quality after years of progress, Campbell said, which helps explain why the poisonous muck trapped by the San Gabriel Mountains earlier this week was dark enough to serve as a duck blind for Justice Scalia.
We’re talking about threatening the health of our children, Campbell pleaded.
“Why do we have to go to the point where people start dropping off and dying before we do something?” he asked. “Especially when we have the technology available to reduce emissions?”
I don’t know, but it might have something to do with Congress’ carefully calibrated regulatory scheme, if not its unflagging courage when it comes to handling Detroit. A new EPA report tells us fuel economy has been stagnant for five years and is nowhere near as good as it was 15 years ago.
“We’re guzzling dramatically more gas than we were in the 1980s,” a global warming expert told the New York Times, “so no one should be surprised that we’re paying more at the pump, in hock to OPEC, and poisoning the atmosphere.”
For this, we can thank congressional representatives who would rather drink boiling radiator fluid with Crazy Straws than stand up to the auto and petroleum lobbies and demand better mileage.
And we can thank American consumers who keep buying vehicles big and powerful enough to transport entire soccer teams, scale Half Dome and invade hostile nations.
A couple of days ago, I had a terrifying moment on the highway when a Hummer passed the Sentra off my left flank. My entire vehicle was almost sucked into the Hummer’s wheel well.
If anyone’s interested, the Sentra is yours for a song.
I’m going with the Dodge Fallouja or Chevy Basra, if not the Ford Extinction.
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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at www.latimes.com/lopez
