Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
December 22, 1999, Wednesday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 694 words
HEADLINE:
STATE OFFICIALS, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS HAIL NEW AUTO EMISSION RULES;
BUT
THEY SAY FINAL EFFECTS OF POLLUTION REGULATIONS WON'T BE KNOWN
FOR YEARS
BYLINE: Nahal Toosi; Post-Dispatch Washington
Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Missouri state officials and
environmental activists said new federal regulations for auto
emissions and gasoline content could help significantly reduce
air pollution in the St. Louis area, but that concrete results would not be
gauged for years.
The new regulations, announced
Tuesday by President Bill Clinton, require that automobile manufacturers reduce
nitrogen oxide emissions in cars, sport utility vehicles and light-duty trucks
by more than 70 percent. They also require that the sulfur
content in gasoline be reduced to one-tenth of the current
national average.
"It will be the most dramatic improvement in air
quality since the catalytic converter was first introduced a quarter century
ago," Clinton said. "And manufacturers will be able to meet these new standards
while still offering the kinds of models popular with consumers today."
=====
With more cars on the road each year driving more
miles, the president said, tougher air quality measures were needed. Otherwise,
"air quality in many parts of our country will continue to worsen in the coming
decades." Emissions of nitrogen oxide --a key component of smog -- could be
reduced in Missouri and Illinois by 75 and 76 percent, respectively, by 2030 if
the new regulations are phased in as expected from 2004 through
2009, according to the White House. State officials said they would be able to
offer more detailed figures by late next year.
The cost increase at the
gas pump would be about 2 cents more per gallon; and about $ 200 would be added
to the price of a light truck and $ 100 to a new car, the EPA estimated.
"We applaud (the new rules)," said Ken Midkiff, director of the Ozark
chapter of the Sierra Club. "But obviously they're not going to have any
immediate impact. Eventually they may, eight or 10 years from now, help clean
the air in St. Louis and other cities."
State officials said the
regulations covering nitrogen oxide emissions will have more
impact on St. Louis than the sulfur content reduction, partly
because the area adopted cleaner gasoline standards earlier
this year. The new regulations would allow vehicles to emit
0.07 grams of nitrogen oxide per mile -- a 77 percent reduction for cars and up
to 95 percent reduction for light trucks and sport utility vehicles.
In
addition, Missouri mirrors the increasing national tendency to buy sport utility
vehicles, estimated at 50 percent of new purchases, said Roger Randolph,
director of the Air Pollution Control Program for the Missouri Department of
Natural Resources. Under the new regulations, sport vehicles
would be held to the same emissions standards as regular cars for the first
time.
Gasoline suppliers would be required to reduce
the amount of sulfur in their product to an average 30 parts
per million, down from a current average of 300 parts per million, by 2005.
Sulfur is believed to inhibit catalytic converters, devices
which reduce pollution emitted in tailpipes.
Automobile manufacturers
assisted the Environmental Protection Agency in forming the
regulations and industry representatives said that, in general,
they were pleased with the results.
"The cost for vehicles will probably
only be maybe $ 100 to $ 350 per vehicle and we don't think that's
insurmountable," said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers.
Bergquist said her organization did not
anticipate any layoffs in the industry due to the new
regulations.
Others were more cautious in predicting
the rules' effects. David Boyd, director of planning and environmental services
for the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, said they would offer
"incremental benefits" because the area's pollution levels were already
decreasing.
He said the number of days St. Louis violated ozone
standards had fallen from 109 in the 1980s to 47 in the 1990s. "The air is
indeed getting better in St. Louis," Boyd said.
But St. Louis has come
under fire recently for not meeting the standards of the 1990 Clean Air Act, and
environmental groups in the state have sued the EPA for not enforcing sanctions
against the city. The new standards won't affect the suit.
LOAD-DATE: December 22, 1999 
