Grasping for Clean Air

Ever since teeth were put into the Clean Air Act more than five years ago, Detroit's automakers have waged a continuing battle with Congress and Government regulators over the timetable and standards for cleaning up exhaust emissions from the nation's cars. They have won some delays: the deadline for meeting the highest federal antipollution standards, once scheduled for all cars by 1975, has been pushed back to 1978 and is likely to be extended further. Nonetheless, automakers are finding the regulatory climate hostile. That is especially true in California, where state authorities view smog control as a matter of rife and death and have imposed emission standards even more rigorous than those mandated by federal law, thus posing tricky production problems for Detroit.

High Fine. Last week the California air resources board fined American Motors $4.3 million and banned sales of the company's Gremlins, Matadors and Hornets with 304-cu.-in. V8 engines. The board accused A.M.C. of producing polluting cars and submitting reports that falsely showed they met California standards. In Detroit, A.M.C. officials denied intentionally making any false reports. They called the fine "unreasonable" and the sales ban unjustified since only about 1,000 cars were involved. Mindful of A.M.C.'s precarious competitive position (the company lost $27.5 million in the last fiscal year), the state may reduce the fine by 75% and require A.M.C. to pump the money saved into its antipollution efforts. Even so, the remaining fine of around $1 million would be one of the highest on record in an auto-pollution case.

Two days after the California action, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department sued Chrysler Corp., alleging that a few 1974 Valiants and Darts were equipped with combinations of emission-control equipment not certified by EPA. The EPA found exactly 42 such autos and asked for a fine of $420,000. Chrysler admitted to an "accidental production error," but protested: "The severe penalty for such a trivial incident is unjustified."

One problem for the automakers is that California and the Federal Government not only set different standards but use different methods of testing to see whether those standards are met. The EPA requires testing during a car's pre-production stage, long before it begins rolling off assembly lines. California, on the other hand, tests production-line cars. That difference will soon end; within a month the Government will adopt the stiffer procedure, also requiring tests of actual production vehicles.

The longer-run problem in cleaning up auto exhaust is that with present equipment the carmakers cannot meet the tougher standards that will be required under present rules by 1978. Automakers get the vast majority of their cars past muster now by attaching catalytic converters that remove pollutants from exhaust after it leaves the engine but before it blows out of the tailpipe (see diagram). In order to get as much nitrogen oxide out of the exhaust as they must by 1978, however, the carmakers will have to resort to lower combustion temperatures, reduced compression ratios and other engine modifications. Those changes, they say, will cut into fuel economy, currently a prime concern of motorists. Critics contend that the industry should never have put its main reliance on the catalytic converter in the first place, but should have concentrated on engine modifications long ago.

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