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L.A., and other communities, are NOT saying the auto companies can't manufacture gross polluter school busses; L.A. is just trying to enforce standards on what vehicles WE actually purchase with our scarce Taxpayer and Ratepayer dollars. This is just free enterprise. Advocates of the "freedom to pollute" often say, "let the market decide", and fight against controls on indoor pollutants such as cigg smoke and outdoor pollutants such as refineries. But when local control, states rights, or free choice leads away from their profits, suddenly, the polluters are in favor of increased government controls! And that's what a cabal of oil and engine makers are up to. Surprised that the Auto Makers Alliance is not involved, after their recent "victory" killing the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate? Maybe they are saving the big guns for last. ---------------------------------------------------- "Clean-Air Challenge to Get Day in Court "Industry is fighting a push in the Los Angeles area for cleaner-burning buses, other vehicles. "By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer "WASHINGTON ? A drive in the Los Angeles area to replace old diesel-burning buses, trash trucks, street sweepers and airport shuttles with cleaner-burning vehicles will be tested this fall in the Supreme Court. "The justices agreed Monday to hear an industry challenge to the 'fleet rules' adopted three years ago by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. "The Engine Manufacturers Assn. and the Western States Petroleum Assn. contend that the federal Clean Air Act bars local regulators from setting their own standards for engines... "Environmental advocates in Los Angeles say they are not forcing manufacturers to change their engines, but simply asking municipal officials to buy the cleanest-burning buses and trucks available. "'This case is about the self-interest of dirty-engine manufacturers,'" said Gail Ruderman Feuer, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council. 'We are fully confident the [U.S.] 9th Circuit's decision [approving the air quality district's rules] will be upheld by the Supreme Court,' she said..."The rules, adopted by the air quality district in 2000, do not govern private trucks. They regulate the purchase of a fleet of 15 or more vehicles by cities, county agencies, school districts and other government units in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties..." --------------------------------- I hope Feuer is right about that, but considering THIS supreme court, and WHAT is arguing the Oily case, don't count on it. Doug Back to T.O.C. 3
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