If California chokes to death that will definitely alter the political landscape
Supreme Court Curbs AQMD in Smog Battle
In an 8-1 ruling, U.S. justices say the Southern California air quality agency went too far in making private firms buy low-pollution vehicles for fleets.
By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2004
Southern California air quality officials overstepped their authority when they required private trash haulers, bus lines and other companies to purchase low-pollution vehicles for their fleets, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The 8-1 decision significantly sets back a broad effort by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the regional smog agency, to expand its reach and tackle the biggest sources of smog-forming exhaust: cars, trucks and other motor vehicles.
The federal government has primary authority over those pollution sources, and local regulators assert that federal officials are not doing enough to help clean the air in Southern California.
The ruling could also forecast trouble for other efforts by California officials to press the state's authority to push new air pollution regulations, some legal experts said.
Because Southern California has the nation's worst pollution problem, regional smog officials — responsible for air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties — have long had the right to set tougher standards than the federal government for factories, power plants and other stationary sources of pollution.
But that authority does not help in handling emissions from cars, trucks and other vehicles, which account for about 70% of the region's smog.
