Time to (finally) de-guzzle our cars?

Californians will get the last word in a trio of public hearings that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation launch this week over whether and how to slash the fuel appetite of the nation's car fleet.

In the wake of President Obama's May 19 accord with California regulators, U.S. automakers, the United Autoworkers and environmental groups, the federal agencies will listen to public comments in Detroit today, in New York on Friday and in Los Angeles on Tuesday. 

Vehicles covered by the proposed rules account for 40% of U.S. fuel consumption and about 20% of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, a colorless, odorless gas that is trapping heat in the atmosphere and disrupting the climate. The new standards would increase fuel efficiency by 5%, reducing U.S. oil consumption by 1.8 billion barrels over the lifetime of the vehicles sold from 2012 to 2016. They would would slash carbon dioxide emissions from passenger vehicles by 21% by 2030.

It was California's first-in-the-nation 2002 law requiring automakers to slash greenhouse gases that got the ball rolling. After lawsuits from automakers and years of push-back from the Bush administration, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that EPA had the right to regulate carbon emissions from vehicles. Lower courts upheld California's right to set its own greenhouse gas standards for cars, which had been adopted by more than a dozen other states."California's leadership paved the way for the national standards," said David Doniger, climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Zipcar expands around UCLA and USC

Zipcar: the leaner, greener solution to the Los Angeles traffic tarantula?

City officials seem to think so. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members have paired with the Massachusetts company to expand an existing car-sharing program based around UCLA and USC.

Adding 12 hybrids and SmartWay-rated vehicles to the 14 Zipcars already at UCLA and the 16 at USC could limit traffic congestion, cut back on exhaust fumes and emissions, and keep drivers from circling aimlessly while looking for parking spots.

The schools are among the five largest of the 130 campuses that host Zipcar around the country.

The company claims that each Zipcar helps remove between 15 and 20 personally owned vehicles from the road. Customers claim to drive 40% fewer miles, increasing public transportation use by nearly 20% and saving more than $600 per month on transportation costs.

Two vehicles each will be located at the following locations:
•    32nd Street and University Avenue
•    W. 29th Street and Orchard Avenue
•    W. Adams and Portland Street
•    Midvale and Rochester avenues
•    Roebling and Levering avenues
•    Strathmore Drive and Landfair avenue

Students ages 18 and older and Los Angeles residents 21 and up can pay $8 per hour or $66 per day during the week, or $9 per hour or $72 per day on weekends to go shopping, pick up groceries, go on road-trips or more. New members currently receive $50 worth of free driving in their first month.

Reservations can be made at www.zipcar.com/LA. The fee pays for gas, insurance, 180 free miles and 24-hour roadside assistance.

City officials hope to expand the program to the rest of the region.

LA's SUV-friendly mayor to pose for Prius

 

Notch another triumph for Toyota in the wake of GM and Chrysler's financial woes. The Japanese carmaker has enlisted Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and officials from the California Department of Transportation to celebrate the launch of the 2010 Prius.

No matter that the mayor, who vows to make L.A. "the greenest and cleanest big city in America"  has yet to endorse the fuel sipper, which gets 50 miles per gallon, when it comes to his own driving habits.  He is chauffered about in a city-owned 2009 GMC Yukon hybrid, which gets about 20 miles per gallon.

The news release from Toyota publicists avoids mentioning the mayor's preferences. Villaraigosa, it says, will unveil on Tuesday "a first-of-its-kind 'Harmony Floralscape,' a vivid roadside display made up of more than 20,000 live flowers," in the shape of a Prius. Seven such florid billboards, 30 feet by 60 feet each, are to be placed along city freeways, including one at the downtown Alpine Street overpass of the 110 Freeway. Two will be placed along roads in San Francisco.

Rebecca Lee, an account executive with Toyota's public relations firm, GolinHarris, said the automaker would maintain the blooms for four months, after which the California Department of Transportation, working with "GreenRoad Media," a Manhattan Beach firm, would sustain the installation for an unspecified length of time.

-- Margot Roosevelt

Toyota unveils the new Prius to the international media at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan JANUARY 12, 2009 (Mark Bosterl/Los Angeles Times).

Cough! Cough! EPA's new effort to clean the air

More than a third of Californians report that they or an immediate family member suffer from asthma or respiratory problems, according to a recent survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Now the federal Environmental Protection Agency, under a court-ordered deadline, has proposed a major new regulation to control nitrogen dioxide (NO2),  a key factor in respiratory illness. The new EPA rule, which will be the subject of a public hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday, is the first to address the dangerous gas in 35 years.

"We're updating these standards to build on the latest scientific data and meet changing health protection needs," EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said in announcing the proposal last month.

N02 spews from power plant smokestacks and from the tailpipes of automobiles and trucks, which also cause pollution from ozone and particulates, two other substances that attack the lungs. It is particularly concentrated along highways. The new EPA rule would require stronger monitoring near roadways, a key provision for many of the mainly poor and minority communities that hug the freeways in Los Angeles and other big cities.

The new regulation would retain current annual limits of 53 parts per billion, considerably higher than California's state standard of 30 ppb.  But for the first time, it would establish a one-hour federal standard of between 80 and 100 ppb, stricter than California's current hourly limit of 180 ppb. That would prevent NO2 levels from spiking during shorter periods such as rush hour.

Cleaning up South Coast school buses

The era of the big, yellow, diesel-belching school bus may be drawing to a close for some South Coast school districts.

On Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued nearly $43 million in grants to help 13 school districts replace their worst polluting buses with new vehicles that use cleaner-burning compressed natural gas and propane.

AQMD also issued more than $3 million to school districts for the installation of particulate matter trapping devices in 176 newer diesel school buses.

"The number of school buses being replaced or retrofitted with this award is extraordinary, and it's a giant step toward our goal of cleaning up all school bus fleets in the region," said William A. Burke, chairman of South Coast AQMD. "This will help thousands of school children and their communities breathe a little easier."

The California Air Resources Board has already cracked down on diesel pollution from trucks. Diesel accounts for about 84% of the cancer risk from air pollution in Southern California, according to AQMD.

--Amy Littlefield

Photo: Anaheim Hills Elementary School students board a diesel-fueled school bus in 2001. Credit: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

California's fossil fuel use slated to grow

California will spend up to $2,911.1 billion on fossil fuels such as oil and coal between 2010 and 2030, according to a new study released Tuesday by the advocacy group Environment California. Using Department of Energy projections, the group found that the total amount spent on fossil fuel between 2010 and 2030 will amount to almost three times the total earnings of all California workers in 2007.

California has no coal plants within its borders, but utilities such as Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants outside the state. The group's report highlights growing concern over  U.S. dependence on foreign oil and over the health and environmental risks of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the leading contributors to both toxic air emissions and greenhouse gas pollution, it noted.

“Every additional dollar we spend on fossil fuels just buys us more global warming pollution, more smog, and more asthma attacks," said Jennifer Kim, a spokeswoman for Environment California.

The group released the study in the wake of the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of the massive  Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill, to spur the use of renewable energy from the wind and sun, as well as curb planet-heating carbon dioxide gases which result from burning fossil fuels. But the legislation may have tough sledding in the U.S. Senate, where coal-dependent states wield more power.

-- Amy Littlefield

Photo: A California oil field. Credit: Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times

EPA targets nitrogen dioxide emissions near freeways

The rest of the country may be catching up to California when it comes to limiting emissions of the air toxin nitrogen dioxide.

The EPA last Friday proposed to strengthen the limits on nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air toxin that the agency says can lead to respiratory illnesses. Nitrogen dioxide is found in emissions from traffic and industrial facilities such as power plants. Even short-term exposure can increase the risk of respiratory effects, particularly among children, the elderly, and people with asthma, according to the EPA.

California already limits NO2 emissions to 30 parts per billion on average annually, while the federal limit would stay at 53 ppb per year under the new regulations.

However, California's hourly average limit for NO2 emissions is 180 parts per billion, while the EPA has proposed hourly limits of 80-100 parts per billion, and is taking comments on hourly limits as low as 65 ppb and as high as 150 ppb. The EPA is also proposing the use of a different format for calculating hourly averages.

The hourly limits are meant to curb the concentrated short term exposures that communities near highways might experience during peak traffic hours. Concentrations of NO2 are 30%-100% higher near major roads, according to Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman for EPA.

The federal proposal would also require states to implement monitoring devices for NO2 emissions particularly targeted at measuring emissions around major roads in areas with large urban populations -- a key issue for Los Angeles, where dense housing and schools are crowded close to freeways.

California wants to buy your old car

Looking to retire your retro car?

California will trade incentives for clunkers in a new effort to get smog-emitting cars off the road. An older state program only accepted cars made after 1976 that had failed a smog check. On Friday, the Air Resources Board decided to accept all cars, regardless of the year and whether they've failed a check.

UPDATE: You'll have to wait though. The state will start taking cars April 2010.

"It will encourage people to dump their old clunkers and purchase cleaner cars," said Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the ARB. "If you've had a car just sitting around that you seldom drive, it would be an opportunity for you to think about acquiring a new car, and it will help you make that choice."

Under the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program, part of AB 118*, the state will now provide a $1,000 incentive if drivers turn their old cars over to dismantlers. Lower-income drivers could get $1,500.

California will have the coolest cars

California cars may soon become the coolest in the country.

On Thursday, the Air Resources Board mandated that new cars sold starting in 2012 must feature windows that reflect or absorb the sun's heat. The board estimates the measure will prevent 700,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in the year 2020 by reducing the need for air conditioning. Such a reduction would be "roughly the equivalent of taking 140,000 cars off the road for a year," said a statement released by the ARB.

Despite groans from the industry, the board passed the measure at Thursday's meeting. The technology used to produce the new sun-deflecting glass will include applying a glass coating with tiny reflective bits of metal to car windows and windshields. The new windows will cost an estimated $70 on average for each car for the 2012 standard, and they will save the driver about $16 a year on gas.

Though the 2012 standard requires that windows block 45% of the sun's heat, a more stringent standard for 2016 will require that windows block 60%. The 2016 windows would cost $250 but would save the driver about $20 a year on gas.

This measure is one of many pieces of "low-hanging fruit" that the board will take care of before it digs into the next phase of its comprehensive climate plan, according to ARB spokesman Stanley Young. The board has focused on the transportation sector because vehicles produce the majority of greenhouse gas emissions in California. The state has already adopted groundbreaking measures to require tire checks from engine maintenance facilities and to implement technology that reduces the amount of refrigerant that escapes from "do-it-yourself" air-conditioners.

The Air Resources Board made headlines months ago amid rumors that it was considering banning heat-absorbing black cars. The board confirmed in March that is was not going to ban the popular car color.

--Amy Littlefield

Photo: Traffic on the Ventura Freeway. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

L.A. air pollution may endanger babies, people in general

 

It looks like L.A. air could be killing us in more ways than one.

Two studies released Wednesday have linked toxic air pollution in Southern California to cancer and complications with birth.

Exposure to local traffic-generated pollution increased the risk of major complications and preterm birth, concluded a report published online in Environmental Health Perspectives. Local scientists studied the relationship of traffic pollution, preterm birth and a complication called preeclampsia that can lead to maternal and perinatal morbidity.

By measuring pregnant women's exposure to chemicals emitted by local traffic (nitrogen oxides and particulate matter), the researchers concluded that the risk for preeclampsia increased by as much as 42% at the highest exposures. The risk for "very preterm delivery" (meaning delivery when the fetus is less than 30 weeks old) increased by as much as 128% for women exposed to the highest levels.

The study was the first to look at the connection between preeclampsia and air toxics. It focused on births in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Meanwhile, an Environmental Protection Agency study found that Los Angeles has some of the highest levels of cancer-related toxic air pollutants in the country. For residents of Cerritos, located at the heart of the L.A. basin, the EPA estimated the cancer risk due to air toxics at 1,200 in 1 million, the highest in the country and more than 33 times the national average. The statistic represents the expected number of additional deaths per million people, based on a lifetime exposure to the chemicals.