L.A. businesses cheer demise of federal air plan.

State and local business and political leaders last week praised the death of a much-criticized, court-mandated, federal clean air plan which threatened the Southland economy.

President Bill Clinton last week signed into law a bill which prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing its Federal Implementation Plan, or FIP.

Environmental regulations contained in the FIP had the potential of costing the state 165,000 jobs and more than $17 billion in economic output, according to Gov. Pete Wilson's office.

Passage of the legislation "has to be viewed as a victory for the business community," said Ray Remy, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Businesses are no longer threatened with having a tough federal plan imposed in the event the EPA rejected the state-devised air plan, Remy noted.

"The federal plan was never likely to go into effect," said EPA spokesman Bill Glenn. "Nobody wanted the FIP to go into effect. We all want to approve a plan drawn up by the state."

But he said the new law will have little immediate impact. "It doesn't change the work that is being done toward achieving clean air in California," Glenn said.

He noted the EPA is reviewing a clean air plan drawn up by state officials.

The EPA developed the FIP for the Los Angeles air basin in February 1994, after losing a lawsuit brought by the Santa Monica-based environmental group Coalition for Clean Air.

That group demanded that the EPA develop a plan to allow Southern California to meet the standards of the U.S. Clean Air Act, after state and local authorities failed to draw up a plan that met that standard.

"This (rescinding FIP) is bad for California's environment and the economy, and is back-room dealing at its worse," said Linda Waade, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air.

She said the FIP issue "didn't get the open dialogue and debate it deserved" because the measure was attached by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands as an amendment to the "completely unrelated" defense appropriations bill. She called the move "another sneak attack" on federal clean air regulations.

The original EPA plan released in February 1994 drew a firestorm of criticism because it would have imposed fees and stringent regulations on airplanes, ships and trains - air pollution sources which have been subject to little or no regulation.

Threats abound

An airline group threatened to cut flights into Los Angeles International Airport in half and shipping groups threatened to abandon Long Beach and L.A. in favor of friendlier ports.

But then the EPA held a series of public meetings and approved a final FIP which was less onerous and very similar to a clean air plan developed by the state, Glenn said.

"Even the watered-down FIP ... had the potential of costing the economy more in jobs and real money than the state plan," said Jerry Martin, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.

Allan Zaremberg, lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce, said, "I think it's very important, not just for business, but consumers who would pay the additional cost for goods, and employees in California who could have lost their jobs."

Jon Mikels, the new pro-business chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said, "My comment is, FIP R.I.P., rest in peace."