American Notes: Jan 20, 1986

ACID RAIN Calling for a $5 Billion Remedy

The report was a joint U.S.-Canadian effort, but its barely diguised aim was to persuade Ronald Reagan that acid rain is a serious problem that requires immediate action, not merely more research. Reagan's repeated refusal to take any steps to curb sulfur-dioxide emissions from U.S. coal-burning factories has been a persistent source of friction between the two nations. The President and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney agreed last winter that Drew Lewis, former U.S. Transportation Secretary, and William Davis, former premier of Ontario, should suggest a course of action before the next U.S.-Canada summit, scheduled for March. Presented last week, their report urges that the U.S. spend $5 billion over five years to devise ways to burn coal more cleanly.

"We can't keep studying this thing to death," Lewis said after reporting to the President. But Budget Director Jim Miller asked the obvious question: "Where do we get the money?" The proposal calls for half the funds to come from the Government and half from the polluting industries. Reagan, who has argued privately that acid rain is a natural rather than a man-made phenomenon, promised only to give the report careful consideration.

In 1984 the U.S. Department of Transportation ruled that air bags, or some form of passive restraint system, would be required safety equipment on all new cars sold in the U.S. by 1990. But in a concession to the U.S. auto industry, which strongly opposes air bags as too expensive, Washington kept the door open for conventional seat belts. If two-thirds of the U.S. population were covered by buckle-up laws by April 1989, said Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole, the air-bag rule could be dropped.

Last week Ohio brought the two-thirds count a little closer when it became the 17th state to pass a seat-belt bill. On New Year's Day, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico and California had all snapped in, bringing to 13 the number of states now requiring motorists to buckle up or pay fines of as much as $50. By mid-1987, when Louisiana, Indiana and Oklahoma will have joined the list, nearly 58% of the U.S. will be covered. Experts question the long-term effectiveness of such laws, however, pointing out that compliance wanes rapidly. While 69% of New York motorists buckled up a year ago, after the state passed the nation's first seat-belt law, only 46% were doing so by September.

In the 1980 election, just 11% of the nation's black voters cast their ballots for Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. In 1984 Reagan received a mere 9% of the black vote against Walter Mondale. Yet last week a New York Times/CBS News Poll showed that a startling 56% of the blacks interviewed approved of the way the President was handling his job. Overall, the poll gave Reagan the highest approval of his presidency, 68%.