http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051110/1025719.asp
State adopts tougher rules on emissions from vehicles
Auto industry suit expected over change
By TOM PRECIOUS
News Albany Bureau
11/10/2005ALBANY - The state joined California on Wednesday in requiring automobile manufacturers to adhere to strict new emission controls that officials say will reduce global warming and could cut the number of smog alerts in Western New York communities each summer.
The edict will force car and light truck makers to incorporate design changes that reduce emissions from greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, by 30 percent by 2016.
Supporters say the rules, which received final approval Wednesday from the State Environmental Board, could encourage more hybrid electric vehicles. They will begin taking effect in 2009 and apply to cars, light trucks, sport utility vehicles and minivans.
For car buyers, the changes would increase new vehicle prices by $1,000 to $3,000 - with the estimate depending on whether it comes from proponents or critics.
Environmentalists and health care groups say the designs eventually will help places like Western New York, which has some of the state’s highest ozone readings and where smog alerts in summer are no longer rare. But carmakers said Wednesday the mandates offer no environmental benefits and would force drivers to shoulder higher costs, compared with states without such requirements.
California, long the leader in stricter car emission standards, adopted the stronger rules last year. Vermont approved the California standard last week, and eight other states - as well as Canada - are considering tighter emission rules.
Gov. George E. Pataki had proposed the stricter standard for this state in 2003. Environmentalists expect the auto industry to sue New York State, as it has done in California, to try to block the new rules’ implementation in four years.
Only California can set its own emission standards under the federal Clean Air Act. Other states can follow California’s rules or the less restrictive federal regulations. Environmentalists had fought to ensure New York State would continue to adhere to California’s standards, at it has done since 1996.
New York State’s air is notoriously dirty, made worse by the high number of vehicles, aging fossil fuel power plants and out-of-state sources that blow in contaminants. Environmentalists say nearly 90 percent of the state’s residents live in areas where ozone levels exceed federal standards.
This year, the American Lung Association reported that monitoring stations in Chautauqua and Erie counties ranked No. 1 and No. 3 statewide in ozone levels - which could worsen respiratory and other illnesses, especially in young children and the elderly.
“New York’s adoption should serve as a wake-up call to all automakers - that they should stop fighting clean car wars,” said Roland Hwang, vehicles policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Hwang described the changes required to meet the new standards as “nothing exotic” and said they could include installing timing devices on engine valves, essentially to allow the car to breathe more easily; using lower resistance tires; providing six- or seven-speed transmissions and making hybrid electric cars more available.
He said the changes would improve gasoline mileage and a car’s performance, allowing drivers to recoup any increase in purchase costs from the regulations.
But car manufacturers say New York State is overstepping its bounds by trying to set its own fuel economy laws, which only the federal government can do. Automakers say the nation needs a single standard, not a patchwork of rules that can vary depending on what California enacts. Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said New York State is responsible for less than a tenth of 1 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. In addition to environmentalists, those supporting the new standards include physicians who are members of the American Lung Association and the New York State Thoracic Society.