Copyright 1999 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles
Times
December 21, 1999, Tuesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Business; Part C; Page 2; Financial Desk
LENGTH: 206 words
HEADLINE:
CALIFORNIA;
BRIEFLY / ENERGY;
NEW FEDERAL VEHICLE SMOG RULES
DUE
BYLINE: Times Staff and Wire Reports
BODY:
The Clinton administration today will
announce stricter pollution controls on new cars, including popular
sport-utility vehicles, and production of cleaner gasoline,
according to sources briefed on the plan. The new EPA
regulations won't have any impact in California, however, where
state "LEV II" standards adopted in November 1998 already equal or exceed the
federal controls. The federal rules will lower the allowable amount of nitrogen
oxide emissions for all cars by about 90% and, for the first time in most of the
nation, will require SUVs to meet the same pollution limits as cars.
Administration officials also said refiners would have to cut the amount of
sulfur in gasoline by 90%. A California Air
Resources Board spokesman said the state already requires that
sulfur in gasoline average no more than 30
parts per million and added that most gas sold in the state registers only 20
parts per million because of pollution incentives. Also, the spokesman said,
while the state board's new low-emission vehicle standards take effect in 2004
(the same time as the proposed EPA rules), California is requiring all auto
makers to fully implement them by 2007--two years before the last of the federal
rules take hold.
LOAD-DATE: December 21, 1999
