Copyright 1999 Star Tribune
Star Tribune
(Minneapolis, MN)
May 5, 1999, Wednesday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A
LENGTH: 501 words
HEADLINE:
Clean air;
Fairness is a feature of new rules
BODY:
It will be interesting to see how the oil and auto industries, long allied
in lobbying against federal clean-air rules, respond to the stricter standards
announced last week.
Carmakers are fond of
pointing out that their emissions-control efforts are undermined by
gasoline with high sulfur content, which fouls
catalytic converters. For their part, oil companies are never shy about calling
for cleaner-burning engines. Both positions are
addressed with considerable fairness in the new rules. Oil companies will have
to cut the sulfur content of gasoline by 90
percent over the next five years. Carmakers will have to meet tougher
emission-control standards by 2007 _ and, in a long-overdue application of fair
play, will have to build most minivans, pickups and sport-utility vehicles to
the same standards as conventional passenger cars by 2009.
Oil has taken an early lead in opposing
the new rules as needless, arguing that auto pollution has already been reduced
90 percent from 1970 levels, that gasoline costs will climb at
least 6 cents a gallon, and that rural areas shouldn't be forced to pay for
urban smog problems. Detroit is adopting a somewhat milder approach, asserting
that the rules will add several hundred dollars to sticker prices.
Certainly it is true that federal
clean-air legislation has been a great success, but its achievements should not
be overstated. Air quality remains a serious issue in urban areas, with up to
half the problem traceable to autos.
Gains
in auto technology have been offset by dramatic changes in driving patterns,
with the average American logging more than twice as much mileage as 20 years
ago. More of those miles are being driven in SUVs and other light trucks, which
now are allowed to produce up to three times the pollution of a standard sedan.
The reality is that Americans have been
exempted for the last 20 years from the most potent limiting factor on
discretionary driving _ expensive gasoline. The results
threaten a significant erosion, if not reversal, of the progress wrought by
technology.
There will certainly be a
price to pay for the new standards _ if not at the levels cited by industry,
perhaps closer to federal estimates of an additional penny or two per gallon of
gasoline and $200 per new car. Those impacts
may fall a little less heavily on customers of forward-looking companies like
Ford, which has already committed itself to building cleaner trucks, and Koch
Petroleum, whose Pine Bend plant now produces gasoline with
sulfur content close to the new requirements.
Which underlines the most potent
counterargument for industry objections to the new rules: Companies are already
on track to meet such standards for their California customers, and some are
doing so voluntarily for a wider marketplace. Federal
regulations may be needed to motivate further gains in air
quality, but once the will has been established, industry can certainly find a
way.
LOAD-DATE: May 6, 1999
