Clean Air in the News

RALEIGH - Faced with roadblocks in Washington, environmentalists in North Carolina are turning to state government to cut the amount of pollution coming from the tailpipes of cars and trucks.

They argue that a third of some types of air pollutants come from all the miles driven on North Carolina's roads and highways. And that the amount of driving is expected to continue growing faster than the population. And that those pollutants have been linked to health problems, including asthma and heart attacks.

The federal government has historically regulated vehicle emissions in most of the country, but California has approved regulations for cars and trucks that are increasingly tougher. In some cases, a vehicle would have to be 25 percent cleaner in California than in other states.

Ten other states - all on the West Coast or in the Northeast - have adopted the California regulations or something similar, and a bill in the General Assembly would make North Carolina the latest to do so.

"At the federal level, we haven't been getting much help in cleaning up the air," said state Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, a sponsor of the bill. "Somebody needs to take some leadership, and North Carolina ought to be, given its track record."

The auto industry has opposed the tougher regulations in other states, and it says it will do the same in North Carolina. In some cases, the industry is challenging the regulations in court.

"It would add $3,000 to the cost of the typical vehicle with no identifiable health or environmental benefits," said Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a group of nine automakers in Washington.

Environmentalists dispute those assessments. In fact, much of the debate so far has been about whose set of numbers is more accurate.

Shosteck said that the alliance's research, which was done by an independent company but paid for by the industry, shows that pollution levels would be the same with or without the tougher regulations. It suggests that one level of pollution - the amount of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds produced each day - will already fall 75 percent from 2000 to 2020.

And the increased costs, such as redesigning an engine, would mean that companies couldn't sell certain vehicles, Shosteck said.

"It's possible that consumers in North Carolina would lose choices of vehicles that are available to people in South Carolina and Virginia," he said.

Considering sources

Citing numbers from the California Air Resources Board, a state agency, environmentalists argue that the tougher regulations would add $68 to the cost of a passenger car and $276 to the cost of a large truck or sport utility vehicle.

And, depending on how a final bill might be written, North Carolinians couldn't just go to a neighboring state to buy a dirtier vehicle. Only the cleaner ones might be eligible for registration here.

Advocates of the bill emphasize the potential health benefits, arguing that air pollution causes 3,000 premature deaths a year in the state. Children and the elderly are considered especially vulnerable.

"Air pollution is causing missed school days, asthma attacks and, in the worst cases, death, for the state's most vulnerable children," said Elizabeth Ouzts, the state director of Environment North Carolina, a Raleigh advocacy-and-research group.

State officials are planning to conduct their own study in the next few months of how the tougher California standards would affect air quality.

"We want to know what kind of difference it might make," said Brock Nicholson, the deputy director of the N.C. Division of Air Quality. "We're not planning to 'attack' any of these other analyses - one, because we don't have the resources to do that, and two, because we don't see that as helpful."

The state has been taking other steps to improve air quality. Car and truck owners in 48 counties must get yearly emissions inspections, with five counties coming aboard just last month. A law passed in 2002 requires power companies to cut back on pollutants from their power plants, and in January the state sued the Tennessee Valley Authority over pollution from its coal-fired power plants.

Harrison said that tougher standards for cars and trucks are a logical next step.

"It's sort of a cumulative impact of what we're doing on other fronts," she said.

North Carolina has 7.8 million registered vehicles, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Rockingham, said that the regulations could backfire. Cole , a former auto-industry executive and auto dealer, said that higher costs for new cars would probably keep older, dirtier cars on the road.

"The more costs you add to any product, at some point in time it takes away from the sales of those products," Cole said. "You would think that someone would be looking to take off the road the cars that are emitting the most noxious gases."

He added that he is in favor of state incentives for people to replace their older cars and trucks.

Gearing up

The emissions bill did not get a hearing in last year's legislative session, and it is sitting in separate legislative committees in the N.C. House and Senate. But environmental and health advocates are making it a priority for when legislators reconvene in May.

As it is written, the bill would apply to most vehicles beginning with the 2008 model year.

In the meantime, the 11 states with the California-style regulations could use their buying power to force changes to the auto industry. Nicholson, of the air-quality agency, said that he has already noticed that some auto manufacturers are building vehicles to meet the tougher state regulations - for example, in how vehicles control the evaporation of gasoline.

"In effect, North Carolina could see some benefits of this without doing anything," he said.