Bush EPA Chief Celebrates Clinton Clean Car Program

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2004 (ENS) - Clinton administration regulations are forcing automakers to make cleaner cars and refiners to manufacture cleaner gasoline, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Mike Leavitt declared Monday. The program is already bringing cleaner cars and trucks to showrooms across the nation, Leavitt said, and will guarantee Americans cleaner air for the 21st century.

"It is a simple formula," Leavitt said. "Cleaner vehicles plus cleaner fuel equals cleaner air."

At an event in Washington, DC, Leavitt viewed more than a dozen vehicles that comply with the EPA's Tier 2 Vehicle and Gasoline Sulfur Program. The model year 2004 vehicles are among the first to comply with the standards, which tighten existing tailpipe emissions regulations and rely on low sulfur gasoline.

The emissions targeted by the regulations are key ingredients in smog, which creates serious public health concerns and is linked to asthma, heart disease and certain cancers.

The Tier 2 program, proposed and adopted under the administration of President Bill Clinton, is expected to result in vehicles that are 77 percent to 95 percent cleaner than today's cars.

It orders refiners to ensure 90 percent of the nation's gasoline supply is low sulfur by 2007 and mandates stricter tailpipe emissions limits for all cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) by 2009.

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt says his agency's clean car rules will guarantee the nation cleaner air for the 21st century. (Photo courtesy Government of Utah)

The regulations are the first to apply equally to all passenger cars and light trucks and the first to treat vehicles and fuels as a system.

While low sulfur fuel is essential for optimum performance in the new generation of cars, the cleaner fuel is expected to improve the emissions control performance of every vehicle on the road.

Leavitt said he is "impressed with the way industry stepped up to the challenge of meeting these stringent new standards."

"Together, the auto and oil industries are not only meeting deadlines, they are beating them," Leavitt said.

The program calls for 25 percent of all cars and light trucks sold in 2004 to meet the new standards. Auto officials said they expect some 35 percent of the 2004 model year fleet will meet the new standards.

Environmentalists, who support the program, say the Bush administration is trying to take credit for a Clinton administration initiative while simultaneously rolling back federal clean air laws.

"This photo op environmentalism will not fool the American people," said Aimee Christensen, executive director of Environment 2004, an environmental political organization. "The rosy rhetoric from today's attempt to seek credit for President Clinton's achievements does nothing to undo the damage of the Bush administration's policies."

Christensen says the administration's revisions to federal clean air laws and hostility toward increased fuel economy far outweigh its tacit support for the Clinton clean vehicle program.

Even without the Tier 2 standards, tailpipe emission technologies have reduced harmful automotive emissions by some 90 percent since 1970.

Environmentalists note that increases in the numbers of drivers on the roads and in numbers of miles driven have largely offset these benefits. They are urging the federal government to tackle fuel economy.

Toyota Tier 2 compliant Prius 2004 was chosen as Car of the Year at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month. The gas electric hybrid emits only 10 pounds of smog forming emissions per 150,000 miles. (Photo courtesy Toyota)

CAFE standards require automakers to meet a sales weighted fuel economy level for the fleets of new cars and light trucks sold each year. Currently the CAFE standards are 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg) for cars and 20.7 mpg for light trucks, a category which includes most minivans, SUVs and pickup trucks.

SUVs and other light trucks now make up half of all vehicles sold annually in the United States and on average consume one third more fuel than cars.

The Bush administration says it has already moved to tackle SUVs. In April 2003 it finalized a rule to increase the CAFE standard for the light truck category by 1.5 mpg by 2007.

Environmentalists call the increase marginal at best, but automakers considered challenging the change. They argue it will cost them billions of dollars and force them to compromise safety of these vehicles.

Last month, the Bush administration announced it is considering closing a loophole that exempts the heaviest SUVs and pickup trucks from federal fuel economy standards.

The EPA's list of Tier 2 compliant vehicles can be found here.