Just Clearing the Air

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The Bush Administration may be making life easier for industries that pollute the air -- but not for motorists. Though the White House last month issued an environmental regulation enabling businesses to sidestep provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency has now issued a rule that will enforce part of the same measure by requiring tougher emissions tests and more expensive repairs for car owners.

The proposed regulations, which become final in November, require 55 new urban areas to begin testing emissions from cars and light trucks by next July. That would bring to 177 the number of regions conducting such tests. And in about 80 metropolitan areas with the worst air problems -- home to more than 60 million automobiles -- the test will be made much tougher. The simple tail-pipe gauge that measures exhaust while the engine idles will be gone. The new test requires a high-tech treadmill device with the Jetson-ish name dynamometer. It collects exhaust while the car idles, accelerates and brakes. Then it runs the material through computerized equipment so sensitive that millions of cars now capable of passing inspection are likely to fail. And not just old smokies: the EPA estimates that as many as a third of recent-model cars will flunk, instead of the current 8% to 10%.

The EPA had good reason to issue the new rules. More than 20 years after the government began requiring annual emissions tests for many cars, half of the smog and 90% of the carbon monoxide in the air still pours out of tail pipes; the rest comes mainly from the smokestacks of factories and oil refineries. The new regulations could reduce smog-producing emissions and carbon monoxide pollution from vehicles by 30% in many cities. But repairs to pass the test could cost drivers from $25 to $450, a stiff increase from the present average of $50 to $75. (Anyone whose car still can't make the grade even after an outlay of $450 will get a waiver until the next required test.) Maybe that kind of expense would be less painful if industry were also paying its share.