Friday, 20 Sep 2002

El Smog

Mexico City declared its first pollution alert in almost three years yesterday, when ozone levels in the famously smoggy city reached about 250 percent of acceptable levels. The alert resulted in some 350,000 cars being ordered off the city streets. That's a lot, but it's far fewer than the nearly half of the city's estimated 3 million vehicles that were forced off the streets by such alerts before many residents upgraded to newer, cleaner models, which are permitted on the roads even during pollution emergencies. Despite its reputation for terrible air quality, the Mexican capital has made some strides, and many scientists now believe it has cleaner air than several other major metropolitan regions, especially in Asia. But environmentalists say the air pollution is still a serious problem, and are urging the city to stiffen its standards for smog alerts.

Acting Up

The Bush administration announced yesterday that it plans to consider new rules for enforcing the Clean Water Act. Some conservative lawmakers have been pressuring the administration to revise the enforcement rules since January 2001, when the Supreme Court imposed new limits on the scope of the act. Some interpreted that court ruling to suggest that the federal government should leave more water pollution control up to the states, but environmentalists fear that doing so would leave hundreds of thousands of miles of isolated streams, tributaries, and wetlands without critical protection, and they see the move as another effort by the White House to gut environmental regulations. For its part, the administration contends that it is merely trying to clarify the act's jurisdiction.

Deaf Charges

In better news for environmentalists, a federal judge has rejected an effort by the White House and the U.S. Navy to exempt underwater military testing and other deep-sea activities from environmental review. Judge Christina Snyder ruled yesterday that the National Environmental Policy Act applies to such activities even if they are conducted beyond U.S. territorial water (but within 200 miles of U.S. shores). At issue was a Navy sonar system using bursts of sound so loud they could cause temporary or permanent loss of hearing in marine mammals, abandonment of habitat, and disruption of mating, feeding, nursing, and migration, according to some scientists. The ruling was cheered by environmentalists, who had feared that a victory by the Bush administration could also have exempted from review such activities as ocean dumping and commercial fishing.

Bowl Game

In an effort to reconcile the problems posed by a growing population and shrinking water supplies, city councilors are contemplating a plan that would retrofit existing buildings with water-saving toilets. The Public Utilities Committee has recommended that the full council adopt a plan whereby builders would retrofit toilets to earn credits toward new building permits. To earn a new building permit, builders would have to retrofit eight to 12 toilets in existing structures. The plan ties together two different water-conservation visions: reining in the water-hungry construction industry, and reducing water demand by improving efficiency in plumbing.

Feeling Gassy

Negotiators for the U.S. House and Senate have reached an agreement on new fuel-economy rules that would expand rather than decrease the country's oil consumption. Under the agreement, automakers would continue to receive credits through the model year 2008 for manufacturing vehicles that can run on both ethanol and gasoline. These credits are used to offset the production of SUVs and other low-gas-mileage vehicles. Environmentalists criticize the credits as a giveaway, because those who drive the flexible-fuel vehicles seldom make use of the ethanol option. A recent government report found that extending the credit program through 2008 would increase petroleum consumption by at least 9 billion gallons. The House-Senate agreement also calls for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to rewrite fuel-economy standards to reduce the fuel consumption of light trucks by at least 5 billion gallons of gasoline by the 2012 model year. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored an earlier, failed proposal to substantially tighten fuel-efficiency standards, said, "It's shocking to me we couldn't do better when we're on the brink of war with Iraq and we know how much oil comes from the most volatile parts of the world."