Now you see it, now you don't.

• Author: Cummins, Jackie
• Position: Clean Air Act Amendments, includes article on cars and gasoline

Former New York City Mayor John Lindsay once quipped that he didn't "trust air he couldn't see." Now, people in urban areas across the nation can see their air and are anything but sanguine about it.

Since passage of the original 1970 Clean Air Act and its 1977 amendments, significant progress has been made in reducing pollutants from factories and motor vehicles. But economic development and its attendant pollution are threatening to outpace the air quality gains. Technology has made automobiles cleaner than ever--but today Americans are buying more cars and driving more miles. The result? Poor air quality that leads many to ask, "Where has all the money gone?"

New Federal Mandates

Congress attempted to put the brakes on escalating air pollution with passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). Although only three years old, the act is proving to be a costly and politically contentious piece of environmental legislation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated the costs of implementing the CAAA in 1990 to be $25 billion per year through 2005 (an average of 25 cents per person per day). The new estimate has been reduced to $20 billion annually. Although these costs appear to be high, they actually represent a savings--although a difficult one to quantify--compared to the estimated health costs of air pollution--$40 billion to $100 billion annually.

The clean air amendments attempt to create a balanced approach to battling smog. The federal government, the states, industry and private citizens are expected to form a close partnership to manage programs and meet deadlines. The act affects every polluter from automobile owners and corner dry cleaners to high-polluting industrial sources. Two parts of the act that place the greatest responsibilities on state and local governments concern "nonattainment areas" and control of "mobile sources."

"Nonattainment areas" are simply cities that fail to some degree to comply with federal air quality standards. Levels of pollution are divided into six increasingly serious categories for ozone and two for carbon monoxide. Ozone is urban smog caused by the chemical reaction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides ([NO.sub.x]) in the presence of sunlight. Carbon monoxide (CO) from motor vehicle emissions may be more dangerous--it's the stuff Mayor Lindsay couldn't see--and restricts the ability of blood to carry oxygen to parts of the body.

Ninety-six areas violate the ozone standards; 41 fail to comply with the CO regulations. Each city has a strict time limit in which to meet the federal standards, ranging from three to 20 years for ozone and from five to 10 years for CO. What a state must do depends on its category. States must meet many requirements for nonattainment deadlines including updating motor vehicle inspection and maintenance programs, adding transportation controls to offset vehicle growth and reducing commuting.

"Mobile source controls" require more stringent tailpipe emission standards, which will be phased in with the 1994-1996 models. EPA will study the effects of these standards and may impose stricter ones on the auto industry beginning in 2004. The clean air amendments include a California pilot program to introduce vehicles that run on clean fuel such as electricity, ethanol, methanol and compressed natural gas. In 1996, California will be required by both state and federal law to sell 150,000 clean-fuel cars, increasing to 300,000 per year by 1999. Requirements are also...