By Andy Feeney
Tougher emission standards recently adopted by 11 north-eastern states of the USA will force the car industry to manufacture cleaner cars for the entire nation, pollution control officials and activists say.
The 11 states — every state on the east coast between Virginia and Maine except Connecticut, plus the District of Colombia — have signed an agreement to adopt California's limits on ozone-generating pollutants, which are stricter than federal standards.
As these states and California account for more than 40% of the US auto market, Sierra Club clean air analyst Blake Early predicts the companies will have to build their entire output to meet the California standards by the mid-1990s. If they have to gear up to produce cleaner cars for this part of the market, he says, they won't save much by making dirtier cars for the rest of the market.
The east coast states and California have essentially pushed Detroit towards meeting an environmental goal that the industry successfully resisted during debates a few years ago over reauthorisation of the Clean Air Act.
But pollution control officials say the car industry will probably fight to reverse the decision in state legislatures from Virginia to Maine.
"The auto industry is fighting against this agreement in every state legislature right now", says S. William Becker of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Administrators. "They're not pleased with the states moving forward on emissions controls."
The editors of the conservative Detroit News responded to the states' announcement by warning that the proposed controls will decimate the US car industry when it is having a tough time hanging on to market share against Japanese companies.
"The swiftness of the states in embracing the California tailpipe standards is unprecedented and has caught the auto companies flat footed", said Early. "That's what promised to produce environmental gains all round. Congress basically rejected the tougher standards at the federal level. We lost on that one, but now the states are forcing the auto companies to act, assuming the industry doesn't lobby them successfully to overturn this."
Becker adds that the states involved "don't have the luxury of picking and choosing their ozone control strategies". Most states on the eastern seaboard from Virginia northward have not attained the federal health standard for controlling low-level airborne concentrations of ozone, he notes. Ozone is a lung irritant that can scar lung tissue, constrict breathing and affect lung capacity among those exposed to high levels. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered states to implement strategies to meet the standards mandated by the Clean Air Act. These include the adoption of so-called "stage II vapour recovery controls" involving nozzles on petrol hoses at service stations, beefed-up inspection and maintenance requirements for private cars, and new standards for ozone emissions from "stationary sources" ranging from large factories to small bakeries and dry cleaners.
Becker predicts that even the use of solvents in personal deodorants may have to be restricted to bring low-level ozone under control. On September 11, the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation proposed regulations to control the use of volatile organic compounds in hair sprays, all purpose cleansers, deodorants and air fresheners to help meet the goals of a 1984 state implementation plan for controlling ozone pollution in the New York City area.
Early says that by moving to adopt the California standards for car emissions — which limit emissions of nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons, two ozone precursors, to approximately 70% of what is allowed under the federal standard — the adopting states are basically trying to avoid imposing heavier ozone restrictions on local industrial sources, thus avoiding the loss of local jobs.
"The states know that if they fail to regulate cars more stringently, they'll have to take additional ozone reductions out of local industrial facilities", he says.
The California standards also mandate that 2% of the new cars sold in that state meet a "zero emissions" standard by 1998, and that 10% do so by 2003, Becker says. This essentially requires the development, production and sale of electric vehicles, he points out.
Maryland has been considering tougher emissions standards for some time, and New York proposed adopting the California tailpipe standards last summer. The Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association charged that the new standards would add up to $1000 to the price of an average vehicle and sued to block the state's action. But the court rejected the industry's case on September 3. On October 29, nine of the states in the North-East/Mid-Atlantic Ozone Transport Region agreed to adopt the California rules by mid-decade. A few days later, Rhode Island and Vermont agreed to join the group, leaving Connecticut as the only holdout.
Becker and Early ridicule the auto industry's claim that meeting the standard will add $1000 to the cost of the average car. Environmentalists predict the cost will be closer to $250 per car, while others say the figure may be around $500.
Becker notes that Detroit predicted that meeting air quality standards in the 1970s would also cause massive job losses. But the industry met the standard easily with catalytic converters. It is conceivable that the industry might meet the California standards with cleaner petrol and electric cars alone, he suggests.
[From the US Guardian.]