Copyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago
Sun-Times
December 22, 1999, WEDNESDAY, Late
Sports Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 63
LENGTH: 408 words
HEADLINE:
Clean air worth cost
BYLINE: EDITORIALS
BODY:
Prepare to say goodbye to smog. The Clinton
administration's plan to impose tougher pollution standards on sport-utility
vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans is years overdue. We welcome
it -- and so do advocates for cleaner air. The new
regulation, to be phased in over 10 years, is almost identical
to proposals first announced in May by the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA
Administrator Carol Browner made the credible argument that federal emissions
rules that cover cars and heavy trucks also should apply to light trucks: those
ever-popular and ubiquitous SUVs and minivans.
Air quality has
noticeably improved since the federal government began regulating emissions from
cars and trucks in 1968 and 1974, respectively. The fuel shortages and higher
gasoline prices that followed the oil embargo also increased
demand for smaller, more efficient vehicles.
Consumer preferences have
changed, however. Today, pickup trucks, minivans and SUVs -- gas
guzzlers all -- account for almost half of all new vehicles sold, and
they produce about three to five times as much air pollution as the average
passenger car. It makes sense to subject them to the same auto emissions
controls.
The required clean-air changes will go into effect starting
with the model year 2004, giving automakers plenty of time to start making the
changes needed to comply. Twenty-five percent more cars will have to meet the
stricter emissions standard each year until the phase-in is completed in 2007.
But the rule is flexible: Manufacturers have until 2009 to bring into compliance
their heaviest light trucks and SUVs.
In 30 years, when all cars and
light trucks now on U.S. roads have been junked, the EPA said that emissions of
nitrogen oxides -- the main component in smog -- will be
reduced by 74 percent and soot will be reduced by 80 percent -- which
has the same clean-air benefit as removing 164 million cars from the road.
The rule, announced Tuesday, also sets the first standard for
sulfur in gasoline, eventually requiring a 90
percent reduction. Sulfur will have to drop to an average of 30
parts per million from 300 parts per million now commonly found in gas.
Browner estimates the regulation will add about $ 100
to the cost of a new car, about $ 200 to the price of an SUV, and about 2 cents
a gallon on gas. Compared with the benefits of cleaner air, the cost of cleaner
cars and cleaner fuels is insignificant.
LOAD-DATE:
December 22, 1999 
