Copyright 1999 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
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May 1, 1999 Saturday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 547 words
HEADLINE:
SMOG-FIGHTING EFFORT COULD MAKE DRIVERS COUGH UP MORE CASH
BYLINE: BLOOMBERG NEWS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Motorists may pay more for sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup
trucks as well as the gasoline used to power them because of a
Clinton administration proposal to fight smog, industry officials said.
President Clinton was planning to announce today a proposal to require
the popular vehicles to comply with the same strict limits as cars do for
nitrogen oxide emissions when maximum allowable tailpipe pollution is lowered.
Refiners would have to cut the amount of sulfur in
gasoline by 90 percent. Refiners said the proposal from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will cost them as much as $6 billion over
the next decade and add 6 to 10 cents to the cost of a gallon of
gasoline, depending on the region of the country.
"If
there is a loser in this, it will be the consumer," the American Petroleum
Institute's chief operating officer, William O'Keefe, said yesterday, adding
that the requirements present "a daunting challenge for a refining industry that
is struggling financially."
Although the requirements for less pollution
from cars and light trucks may burden Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp.,
DaimlerChrysler AG and other automakers, the fuel requirements give them some
relief. Reduced sulfur makes pollution controls on automobiles
work more efficiently.
Environmentalists welcomed the plan, although
they said it gave a significant break to the auto industry.
"In general
it's a big step in the right direction," said Clean Air Trust Executive Director
Frank O'Donnell. Still, the decision to grant more time for the largest light
trucks to meet emissions standards was an "unnecessary concession."
New
regulations were required by the 1990 Clean Air Act. The
announcement comes just days before Vice President Al Gore, with an eye toward
the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, is to visit Detroit, the center
of the U.S. auto industry.
The EPA expects to issue final rules by the
end of this year. Under the proposal, most gasoline would have
to contain about 90 percent less sulfur by 2004. Nitrogen oxide
pollution from automobiles would have to be cut by roughly the same amount.
Nitrogen oxides are the precursors to smog and ground-level ozone, which
cause lung inflammation, coughing and breathing difficulty for nearly half the
U.S. population.
The EPA and automakers say sulfur in
gasoline interferes with catalytic converters, the filters
designed to cut pollution.
Last year, the agency said 46 million people
live in counties where air quality fails to meet national standards for at least
one of the six common air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides.
The EPA
said it needed tighter controls on nitrogen oxide pollution from the sport
utility vehicles and other light trucks because their popularity has grown to
the point that they accounted for half the new-vehicle sales in 1997. The
different standards were allowed when those vehicles had a smaller share of the
market.
Emissions would be capped at 0.07 grams per mile for most
vehicles starting in 2007, although light trucks would have additional time to
cut emissions to that level.
Twenty percent of an automaker's fleet,
larger light trucks such as the Ford Motor Co. Expedition, will get those two
extra years, until 2009, to meet the standards.
LOAD-DATE: May 3, 1999 
