Copyright 1999 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The
Plain Dealer
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May 30, 1999 Sunday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: DRIVING; Pg. 1I
LENGTH: 701 words
HEADLINE:
AUTOMAKERS WANT NEW RULES ON POLLUTION DELAYED
BYLINE:
By MIKE MAGNER; NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:
WASHINGTON
BODY:
After riding high on
sport-utilities and pickups for nearly a decade, the auto industry is headed for
a collision with the government over the extra pollution the larger vehicles
produce.
Stricter standards proposed by the Clinton administration this
month would, for the first time, require light trucks to meet the same emission
limits as cars, beginning with some 2004 models. Automakers support the goals,
but not the timetable, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan. They
say it could take a decade to clean up the bigger vehicles that now make up half
the new-vehicle market in the United States.
"We don't have the vehicles
today that demonstrate we can meet the standards," said Josephine Cooper,
president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobbying group of nine
automakers. "We need the time to invent those technologies."
Michigan
lawmakers fear the proposed regulations, announced May 1, could
undercut an industry that has rebounded in the 1990s, largely because of the
high-profit sport-utility vehicles.
"We're talking about a significant
increase in costs on a product that's making the industry strong these days,"
said Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham. "When that happens, usually people get
laid off in our state."
Abraham said hearings will be held this summer
on the proposed emission limits, which are open to public comment before the EPA
takes final action on them later this year.
Because of their bigger
engines, sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans are allowed to spew three to
four times as much pollutants as cars.
Their growing size and
popularity, along with increased driving by Americans, are major reasons nearly
half the nation has unhealthy air in the summer, according to the EPA. Summer is
when sunlight cooks emissions from vehicles, power plants and factories to form
the lung irritant ozone.
A key issue in the emissions debate is whether
the EPA is putting too much of a burden on automakers to make expensive engine
improvements and not enough pressure on oil companies to produce cleaner fuels.
EPA Administrator Carol Browner said the rules were drafted so costs
would be evenly split between the auto and oil industries.
Browner
estimated that better catalytic converters - the devices that burn off
pollutants - and cleaner engines needed to meet the standards would add about
$200 to the cost of light trucks.
Oil companies, meanwhile, will be
required to remove more than 90 percent of sulfur from gasoline
by 2004, at a cost of 1 to 2 cents per gallon, Browner said.
Sulfur is a natural ingredient of oil, but it damages catalytic
converters and does nothing for vehicle performance.
Auto and oil
executives are at odds over the EPA estimates.
Ford Motor Co. spokesman
Ed Lewis said 75 percent of the costs of meeting the new standards will be borne
by the auto industry, while oil companies face only 25 percent of the costs.
"It's going to be a little uncomfortable for all of us," Lewis said.
"We're trying to expand our technology. They need to do the same."
The
automaker alliance, which includes Ford, General Motors Corp. and
DaimlerChrysler AG, is asking the EPA to allow more time for light trucks to
meet the new standards and to require oil companies to make virtually
sulfur-free gasoline by 2008.
"There
is no data or analysis I've seen to justify [the automakers' demand for
completely sulfur-free gas]," responded William O'Keefe,
executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's
lobbying group.
Oil companies may not even be able to meet the EPA's
goal of 90 percent sulfur reduction by 2004, O'Keefe said.
"That is overly optimistic," he said. "We think they're trying to do too
much too soon and have made assumptions about emerging technology that cannot be
validated."
Environmentalists say the industries are crying wolf, as
they have each of the three times emissions limits have been tightened since
1970.
"Over the years, the auto industry has been pushed repeatedly -
and when push comes to shove, the engineers always rise to the occasion," said
Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust, a Washington
environmental group.
LOAD-DATE: June 1, 1999
