Return to the ground floor of this tower
Return to the Main Courtyard
Return to Fort Freedom's home page
]]]]]] Jimmy Bush's Coast-to-Coast Clean Air Catastrophe [[[[[[
By Warren T. Brookes (1/7/1989)
From Human Events, 16 December 1989, p. 10
(includes corrections made by HE a week later)
Recently in Los Angeles, President Bush addressed the
zero-population ``green'' groupies of Hollywood at ``Globescope
Pacific'' where Jimmy Carter's ``Global 2000'' paean to
future-malaise was miraculously revived in a five-day conference.
[Correction: President Bush was listed as keynote speaker but did
not attend the event.] The Carter sweater has been replaced by a
green hair shirt.
Meanwhile, Detroit, already recessionary from the Federal
Reserve's interest rate assault, is bracing itself for the
passage of the Bush Clean Air Act, which will (among other
things) force all Americans to pay $20 billion more a year for
driving -- primarily because of smog in the Los Angeles Basin.
In 1988, Congress passed the Reagan catastrophic health
insurance program to provide benefits no one wanted at costs no
one could afford. It may repeat that mistake on the Bush Clean
Air Act.
Sadly, just as congressmen listened only to self-appointed
pressure groups when they passed catastrophic health, they are
now running like scared sheep before the yapping environmental
shepherd hounds to make the already foolish Bush bill more
costly.
The difference is that in this case the costs will be
hidden in 10 per cent to 20 per cent higher electricity
bills and up to $1,000 to $1,500 on each new car sales
sticker.
The largest share of that cost will lower the level of surface
ozone and carbon monoxide in big cities. This will be done in
part by costly new tailpipe controls and an ``on-board'' charcoal
canister to trap and recycle fueling fumes.
That little doozie alone could turn cars into ignitable
torches, while requiring one million cars to burn methanol (one
of the most toxic substances ever considered for public
distribution). It could also add 100 to 300 poisoning deaths a
year, while doing almost nothing for emissions on 1983 or later
model cars.
The premise of this costly madness is that the United States
now faces a ``crisis'' in surface ozone and carbon monoxide
levels. Congress will force all cars sold in the United States
to reach California's stringent new 1993 to 2007 tailpipe
emission standards to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
and nitrogen oxide (NOX).
Those standards may well make sense for southern California,
but they make absolutely no sense for the rest of the nation. In
the first place, Los Angeles is the only urban area that needs to
cut nitrogen oxide. But since NOX itself ``consumes'' surface
ozone, reducing it makes ozone more costly to control. Congress'
action will throw dozens of clean cities out of ozone compliance.
The stupidity of all this is that, ``Except for L.A., there is
no ozone crisis in the United States. It is simply untrue that
hundreds of millions of Americans are exposed to high ozone
levels. The ozone problem in the Los Angeles basin is the worst
in the nation and completely unlike that other areas face.''
So says Dr. Kay Jones, one of the nation's most respected
environmental officials, who until 1988 served as the senior
adviser on the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
for both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Jones' report shows, contrary to environmentalist
propaganda, U.S. urban air quality has been steadily improving
under current catalytic technology, cutting auto emissions by
half since 1970. (See Table.)
Jones, who is now a private consultant for the industry-based
Clean Air Working Group, says, ``Most American cities do not need
a program comparable to that envisioned in Los Angeles....''
The reason is clear: Over the last five years (1985 to 1989
inclusive), 41 of the 71 major urban ``ozone attainment'' areas,
representing over 70 per cent of all Americans, are already in
compliance, with no more than one day a year with over one hour
of surface ozone levels above 0.12 parts per million (ppm).
Another two are ``marginal'' with only two to five days a year
of ``nonattainment,'' seven are ``moderate,'' having from six to
14 days a year of elevated ozone, and only one, Los Angeles, is
``severe,'' averaging more than 138 days a year with high ozone.
And even these averages include the very rare 1988 drought
year, when only 15 cities ``attained'' the Environmental
Protection Agency ozone standard. But 1989 performance (through
Oct. 10, 1989) demonstrated that 1988 was, Jones said, ``an
abberational fluke.''
Indeed, it was. Atlanta, which had 19 ``ozone exceedance''
days in 1988, had only one in 1989; Baltimore with 34 in 1988
fell to two in 1989; Boston with 26 in 1988 fell to five in 1989;
Chicago from 27 down to three; Washington from 30 down to three,
and so on.
In fact, ``The majority of U.S. cities where ozone levels now
exceed federal standards will likely come into attainment within
five years without additional controls,'' Jones said.
That's because 83 percent of the pollution now comes from
pre-1983 cars, which make up less than half the present fleet.
As those cars are replaced, total VOCs will fall another 30 per
cent by 1995.
While population and car use will modestly reverse that trend
in some cities after 1995, ``outside California, the health and
safety risks are too insignificant to warrant that kind of
draconian measure. We do not have to treat the nation as if it
were Los Angeles.'' But try and tell that to ``Jimmy'' Bush.
Trends in Auto Pollution Emissions
1970-1986
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total Emissions* Concentrations**
----------------------- -----------------------
VOCs CO Lead Ozone CO Lead
1970 ..... 12.4 71.8 163.6 0.158 12.86 1.07
1980 ..... 8.2 52.6 59.4 0.145 9.08 0.55
1986 ..... 6.5 42.6 3.5 0.123 7.21 0.15
1980-86 Trend with no Change in Policy:
1990 ..... 5.6 36.9 0.6 0.110 5.98 0.04
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* In millions of metric tons except for carbon monoxide (CO),
which is in thousands of metric tons.
** In parts per million except for lead, which is in
micrograms per cubic meter.
Source: Council on Environmental Quality, 1987-88 Report.
Trend projection by author.
--------------------
[The following is not part of the original article.]
From Human Events, 6 January 1990, p. 19, col. 4:
Correction
The December 16 Warren T. Brookes column entitled
``Jimmy Bush's Coast-to-Coast Clean Air Catastrophe (page
10) incorrectly stated that President Bush had recently
addressed the ``Globescope Pacific'' conference in Los
Angeles.
Writing on the same day as the conference, Mr. Brookes
had relied on the conference program that listed the
President as the keynote speaker. The President, however,
did not attend the event.
[Sysop's note on the correction above: ... But Bush's name was
listed on the propaganda sheets prior to the meeting, and Limp
Wimp Bush had no objections, so he did intend to go to the cir-
cus, though he may later have been interrupted by other activi-
ties like maybe crawling on all fours before Butcher Deng.]
* * *
Return to the ground floor of this tower
Return to the Main Courtyard
Return to Fort Freedom's home page