FEDS OVERRIDING CALIFORNIA'S AIR QUALITY LAWS.

Byline: Fran Pavley 

A series of actions coming out of Washington, D.C., threatens to hobble California's historic role as a leader in air quality initiatives. Nearly 24 million of our citizens live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone. Unfortunately, while Californians demand cleaner air, the Bush administration seems determined to derail what we are doing to get there.

Sheltering the change under the guise of the president's ``Clear Skies Initiative,'' for example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year proposed exempting power plants, refineries and other dirty industrial facilities, when they upgrade or repair their equipment, from having to install required new pollution-control devices.

A provision buried in a federal appropriations bill would have barred California from placing emission standards on portable generators and other small gas and diesel engines that could, by the year 2020, net emissions reductions the equivalent of taking 1.8 million cars off the road.

On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the weaker federal ``Clean Air Act'' pre-empts the South Coast Air Quality Management District from requiring fleet operators who have dirty diesel vehicles to buy clean-burning vehicles when they're ready to replace them. The Bush administration actually argued to the court on behalf of the engine manufacturers.

Although polluters may be thrilled, the public health community is outraged. We have have seen terrible increases in asthma rates. One of every seven students in Fresno brings an inhaler to school. After years of improvement, our air quality is headed back downward.

We can't start backsliding to the old days of regular smog alerts, inversion layers that trapped bad air, and summer days when the air was so polluted it wasn't safe for kids to play outdoors.

While our health suffers, signs of global warming have received worldwide medical and scientific coverage. The California Water Plan documents the earlier melting of our Sierra snowpack - this will have an impact on Central and Sacramento Valley farmers and water purveyors. The eight hottest years in a century have all occurred since 1990. Climate warming contributes to poor air quality in our urban areas, affecting children and the elderly the hardest.

In California, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles are the major contributor to global warming. In 2001, I authored the first vehicle emissions bill in the nation, AB 1493. The United States represents 4 percent of the world's population but produces 25 percent of all greenhouse gases - primarily from carbon-based fuels.

Although AB 1493 was signed into law, it took a battle of unimaginable proportions against special-interest groups. The same auto manufacturers who had waged war against seat belts, calling them ``an unnecessary imposition,'' and against air bags, calling them ``baloney,'' unleashed a multimillion-dollar campaign of lies and deception that even brought out Cal Worthington and his dog Spot.

AB 1493 simply requires the California Air Resources Board to develop reasonable regulations that achieve the ``maximum feasible'' reduction of greenhouse gases emitted by passenger vehicles and light-duty noncommercial trucks. Draft regulations will be out this summer, with public hearings in the fall. Automakers have until the model year 2009 to comply.

At least six other states are following California's lead, and Canada is seriously considering adopting our standards as its national policy. I wish our federal government would do the same.

What does the public think? A recent poll showed that 81 percent favor requiring automakers to further reduce vehicle emissions. Car dealers can't keep the new gas-electric hybrids in stock. Hybrid SUVs should be on the market soon.

May is ``Clean Air Month.'' The great irony is that the federal government is linking desperately needed highway funds to our success in cleaning up our air. California asks just one thing: Get out of the way, and we'll keep our air quality strategies a model for the nation - and the world.