Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
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York Times
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May 1, 1999, Saturday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 11; Column 6; National Desk
LENGTH: 744 words
HEADLINE:
Crackdown On Pollution By Vehicles
BYLINE: By
KEITH BRADSHER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, April 30
BODY:
President Clinton has approved strict Federal
rules to control pollution from the tailpipes of automobiles and end the special
treatment for sport utility vehicles for the first time since Federal emissions
standards were drafted in the early 1970's.
Government and industry
officials said the long-awaited decision, which Mr. Clinton is to announce in
his weekly radio address on Saturday, would force oil companies to produce
cleaner fuel and compel auto makers to redesign their engines and install larger
catalytic converters. The oil industry warned that gasoline
prices could rise up to 6 cents a gallon as a result. The auto industry said
prices could rise by hundreds of dollars for some automobiles, particularly
large sport utility vehicles, which tend to pollute the most.
But David
Cohen, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said the
regulations would add no more than 1 cent or 2 to the price of
a gallon of gasoline, an extra $100 for a new car and an extra
$200 for a new sport utility vehicle, mini-van or pickup truck. While the effect
on gasoline prices may be lasting, technological advances
should reduce the extra auto costs over time, Mr. Cohen added.
The rules
are meant to address two broad trends that are threatening to reverse decades of
improvements in air quality. Americans are driving more miles each year. At the
same time, cars are gradually being replaced by light trucks, a category that
includes sport utility vehicles, mini-vans and pickup trucks. Under current
rules, light trucks are allowed to emit up to several times more smog-causing
gases per mile than cars.
Federal regulators have given special
treatment to light trucks ever since the earliest emissions rules were imposed
in the 1970's, when they reasoned that light trucks were mainly used by small
businesses for difficult tasks like hauling building materials across
construction sites. But sales of light trucks have soared in recent years and
now account for half of all new automobile purchases by families, mainly because
of the popularity of sport utility vehicles.
The new
regulations would tighten pollution standards somewhat for cars
and mini-vans built in the 2007 model year and afterward. Virtually all sport
utility vehicles and pickups would have to meet these same tighter standards by
the 2009 model year, auto industry officials said. For some of the larger sport
utility vehicles, like the Chevrolet Tahoe, this would mean a 93 percent
reduction in allowable pollution.
Vehicles already on the road by then
would not be affected by the emissions standards, but they would pollute less
with the cleaner gasoline, which would be required starting in
2004.
The new rules will be issued for public comment on Monday. The
product of months of strenuous lobbying already, the rules are unlikely to be
changed much, if at all, before becoming official at the end of this year.
Congress could pass legislation to change the rules, but this could be
politically difficult and would probably face a Presidential veto.
The
new rules do not cover Suburban full-sized sport utility vehicles with
four-wheel drive or the even larger Excursion sport utility that the Ford Motor
Company plans to put on sale this autumn. These vehicles are so huge, weighing
as much as two mid-sized sedans or three small cars, that they are exempt from
the weight-based emissions rules that the Government has used for decades. As a
result, the Administration will also invite public suggestions on how to
regulate these huge vehicles, Government officials said.
The
Administration's approach has divided the oil industry and the auto industry.
The rules will force oil companies to refine their gasoline to
remove virtually all sulfur, which clogs catalytic converters.
This will make it much easier for auto makers to design low-emissions vehicles.
Auto lobbyists said today that they generally supported the new
standards because of the sulfur provisions, while adding that
it was not yet clear whether building such clean sport utility vehicles was
technologically feasible. But oil industry lobbyists denounced the
Administration's plan as unnecessarily stringent and expensive, particularly
because it would include gasoline sales in rural areas with
good air quality.
While some environmentalists said they had wanted the
crackdown on sport utility vehicles to come sooner, most were delighted with the
Administration's action. http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: May 1, 1999 
