Soccer Dad

Cleaning out taxpayers

On Friday the Washington Post reported:

The District and its surroundings are among the dirtier regions of the country, but 70 percent of the pollution on the worst summer days arrives from coal-fired power plants and heavy industry farther west. The new rule is expected to produce gradual improvement, but meeting the new standards will be difficult without further measures, including reducing pollution from vehicles, officials have said.

Nitrogen oxides react with sunlight in warm air to make ground-level ozone, also known as smog, which causes respiratory problems and damages crops. Sulfur dioxide makes acid rain, which has been wreaking environmental havoc in the East for many years. Both pollutants are key contributors to fine particulate soot, which causes a variety of respiratory ailments and contributes to the haze that has increasingly marred views in some of the nation's most pristine areas.

Under the rule, sulfur dioxide pollution is expected to decline by 73 percent over the next decade, compared with 2003 levels, EPA officials said. Oxides of nitrogen are expected to drop by 61 percent.

All told, the EPA calculated, the rule will prevent 17,000 premature deaths; 1.7 million lost workdays; 500,000 lost school days; 22,000 non-fatal heart attacks; and 12,300 hospital admissions annually by 2015.

Now I realize that in the first paragraph quoted above there's a qualification about auto emissions, but the estimated benefits of the new EPA rule are pretty impressive by themselves.
Fast forward to "Cleaner Cars in Maryland" today in the Post:

In all the back and forth, it is possible to lose sight of the fact that Maryland's air quality is poor and unhealthful and that vehicle exhaust is one of the principal culprits. That's why the General Assembly should enact the Clean Cars Act.

There are many problems with this legislation that allows the state to adopt laws legislated in another state.
1) There's a lack of accountability. Allowing another state's laws to be adopted by our state's government without debate subverts the notion of representative government.
2) It's not just the SUV owners who will pay the prices - it will also be families with more children who have large vans out of necessity. If the prices of these vehicles become prohibitive these families will either be unfairly burdened or will opt for used vehicles that are likely less clean.
3) California's success has led to more people buying hybrids and using less gas. The legislature in California is now considering a "mileage tax" to make up for a shortfall of gasoline tax revenues. This suggests that the cleaner air rationale was a smokescreen for increased fees on SUV's and vans; a sneaky "revenue enhancement" rather than an honest attempt to curb pollution.
4) Finally, it appears according to the Washington Post itself, notwithstanding a failure to reduce auto emissions, that Maryland's air is on its way to becoming cleaner due to a new rule enacted by the EPA. Why put an extra burden on Maryland taxpayers when it appears that there is already a law enacted to address that problem.

Posted by SoccerDad at March 15, 2005 03:12 AM | TrackBack