Letters

From the March 1997 issue

Smog Test

While it is true, as Lynn Scarlett writes in "Smogged Down" (December), that California's new state smog law says nothing about crushing cars, it does refuse to license cars that don't pass the new test, and local government ordinances mandate towing and crushing cars that are not licensed. Ignoring this fact is hardly telling the whole story.

The real problem with California's smog law is that it is not aimed primarily at cutting pollution. Two points: Older cars that add a catalytic converter in order to meet clean air standards fail the smog inspection because the converter is not "original equipment." This makes no sense if reducing air pollution is the real goal. Further, the pollution credits from older cars taken off the road are sold to fixed-point sources like oil refineries or generating plants. But the car owner does not get the money, variously estimated at $5,000 to $14,000. The state says they may pay car owners $500 or so for confiscated cars, but if owners were allowed to sell credits directly, they could buy a newer and non-polluting car. This would solve the problem of poor folks losing their cars, but it wouldn't force anyone onto public transit, and many Californians are coming to believe that this is the real purpose of Smog Check II. Tell your reporter to dig a little deeper.

Earl Aagaard

Lynn Scarlett's interesting report "Smogged Down" inadvertently highlights the impossibility of wedding the environmental movement's ideals with a commitment to individual liberty. Scarlett says that California's new smog check program is "what happens when the public gets what it wants," citing as evidence a Gallup poll that showed 62 percent of respondents willing to risk economic growth to achieve greater environmental protection. This led me to wonder who "the public" is. Is not the other 38 percent part of the public? Did they get what they wanted? Asking this question focuses attention on what is missing in Scarlett's article. There is no presumption in favor of individual liberty and rights, and thus no discussion of the fundamental issue regarding air pollution: Do current levels of air pollution constitute a public health crisis so grave that the state (federal, state, or local) is sanctioned in using its police power against each and every one of its citizens, in what amounts to a search and seizure of private property?

A number of remarks in this article, e.g., that automobiles are "the last targets from which significant additional reductions...can be wrung," clearly indicate that the answer to that question is no. It is arguable whether air pollution was ever a serious enough problem for such police action; the burden of argument long ago shifted to those who claim that it is. What the Reason Foundation ought to bring to this issue is a principled insistence that all recommendations for further improvements in air quality meet one simple test: They do not violate individual rights.

James G. Lennox
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh

Lynn Scarlett replies: The tension Mr. Lennox perceives in "Smogged Down" between individual liberty and air quality is not inadvertent: That tension is at the heart of the dilemma facing those concerned about individual freedom and air pollution. Individual liberty includes freedom to travel, but use of automobiles carries with it personal responsibility not to harm others, and that includes a responsibility not to pollute.

Regrettably, unlike so many things we value as individuals, it is not possible for Mr. Lennox to enjoy his preferred clean air standard, while his neighbor enjoys a different air quality. The nature of outdoor air quality is such that some sort of "collective" goal needs to be tolerated by individuals who may have very different personal values.

In an ideal world, individuals could choose their own personal air-quality standard and then make decisions about how much clean air they would choose to buy. Unfortunately, nature does not cooperate with this ideal world. Individuals must share one air quality in individual air basins. This, of course, raises a fundamental dilemma: Who should decide what that shared level of air quality will be? Who should decide how clean is clean enough? Even pushing air-quality decisions to the local level does not obviate the need for developing some way of determining what the shared air quality will be. Under such a situation, some people will always feel that the ultimate choice results in air that is too clean; others will feel the resulting air is still too dirty. Mr. Lennox argues that no air quality program should violate individual rights. Yet holding individuals responsible for the pollution they cause seems not only compatible with but an essential component of a society of free and responsible individuals. With respect to automobiles, the real challenge is how to maintain that responsibility without encroaching on people's automobility and freedom to make choices about where they live and travel. Given the "collective" nature of air quality, this is no simple task.

Beyond these fundamental challenges, the Smog Check II debate mostly involves either implementation details that are largely remediable or misconceptions about the program. For example, the program does not allow for confiscation and involuntary scrapping of vehicles, which would be reprehensible. Moreover, in contrast to what Mr. Aargaard asserts, the program is designed to avoid situations in which people are unable to register their vehicles because of failure to pass the test. The program includes a one-year repair extension, so that motorists can make some initial repairs that bring their cars below the gross-polluter category and then take up to a year to make additional repairs that bring the car into the "passing" category. Other provisions allow for two-year waivers from the program under certain circumstances. To date, few motorists have indicated an inability to pay for vehicle repairs so that their cars will not be gross polluters.

The tradeable permit program that Mr. Aargaard mentions is not part of Smog Check II. It is an entirely separate program, one that I was not addressing. The idea that motorists might sell pollution reduction credits directly to manufacturers is an interesting one. However, I might add that in the experimental scrappage programs conducted in Southern California, the participating motorists generally view the opportunity to sell their vehicles for $400 or $500 as a benefit; these cars were typically not worth that sum on the open market.