Word: carly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Over the years, California has given the rest of the country everything from health food to a taxpayers' revolt. Now it has bequeathed another far-reaching legacy to its sister states: a clampdown on auto-emission standards that could help transform the American car and the fuel that makes it run. To the discomfort of U.S. automakers, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee voted unanimously last week to adopt California's strict limits for the 1990s as the law of the land. The measure, which seemed certain to win House approval, would cut existing levels of tail-pipe pollutants...
...House proposal brought a swift protest from U.S. carmakers, who contended that the clean-air standards would raise car prices and strain technical resources. The companies argued that auto exhaust is already 96% cleaner than it was before pollution-control measures were introduced two decades ago. Noting that the House limits would be tougher than those President Bush put forward in his clean-air package last summer, General Motors President Robert Stempel asserted, "For our business it would be extremely tough. It went further than the President proposed, and we're deciding how to handle...
...Car companies could meet such standards by upgrading their current pollution controls rather than developing expensive new systems. For example, the bill would require that catalytic converters, now guaranteed to be effective for 50,000 miles, be beefed up to last 100,000 miles. Other alterations would range from adding a microchip to monitor a car's pollution controls to expanding a charcoal canister that catches evaporating gasoline fumes when a car's engine is off. The EPA estimates that such improvements could raise car prices as much as $200 by 1996 and $500 more...
Nonetheless, U.S. automakers insist that California standards would become burdensome if adopted nationwide. GM's Stempel argued that the stricter requirements would raise car prices in regions that are free of smog. Declared a Chrysler spokesman: "If you lived in Resume Speed, N. Dak., you would be paying for a piece of equipment that you simply did not need to keep your air clean...
...companies may have little choice. While the House subcommittee did not take up the question of alternative fuels last week, it is expected to do so this month. On the table is a White House proposal that would require automakers to start selling cars that run on gasoline substitutes by 1995. Car companies would be told to produce 500,000 such vehicles the first year and 1 million units a year beginning in 1997. Among possible substitutes: methanol, a high-octane alcohol derived from wood; ethanol, or "gasohol," a blend of gasoline and grain alcohol; and compressed natural...