Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220481
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The proposal, being pushed by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is expected to provide the most fireworks when the air pollution control bill comes up for floor votes on Thursday.
The sweeping legislation is the first strengthening of federal clean air laws in 13 years and imposes new curbs on acid rain pollution, industrial toxic releases and smog-causing emissions from industry and automobiles. It is expected to cost more than $21 billion a year when fully implemented.
The Senate approved a similar measure in April.
The House began debate on the clean air bill Monday, while closed-door talks continued in an effort to work out compromises on some of more than a half-dozen proposed amendments.
Agreements were reached on several amendments, including a measure aimed at curbing pollution over national parks and requiring a cleaner gasoline blend in smog-troubled urban areas, according to participants in the talks.
But sources involved in the closed-door discussions said late Monday that it was all but certain that Waxman's alternative fuel car amendment would be left for a showdown on the House floor.
Waxman's amendment calls on automakers to produce non-gasoline powered automobiles for sale in the nine U.S. cities with the highest air pollution. The cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and Hartford, Conn.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, who has been protective of auto interests, is strongly opposed to the production mandate.
He said Monday that he considered "all the really important environmental issues" to be already resolved and suggested those remaining in dispute represented little more than a difference of viewpoint among congressmen.
Waxman said his measure differed little from a proposal offered by President Bush a year ago, which the White House later backed away from following strong auto industry opposition.
The amendment calls for automakers to produce 500,000 alternative fuel cars for sale in the nine cities by 1994 and double that number by 1996. The cars would cut auto emissions in those cities by 75 percent by the end of the decade, according to Waxman.
Auto industry lobbyists have argued for weeks that the mandate would push alterative fuel cars onto the road too quickly, saying they may be forced to make cars they can't sell.
"Until we know how to produce these vehicles in volume you run the risk of killing the program by forcing it onto [the public] too quickly," said William Ball, a lobbyist for General Motors Corp.
by CNB