Published Friday, May 7, 2004, in the San Jose Mercury News

Editorial

Old clunkers must die

Drivers would barely notice two small tax hikes to get polluting
vehicles off the roads

With stricter federal air standards being put in place, it's a good
time to pay renewed attention to a statistic that has been lying in
plain sight for years.

Half the pollution from cars, trucks and buses comes from about a
tenth of the vehicles on the road.

Getting clunkers and junkers off the road, along with retiring old
diesel equipment from construction sites and farms, would reduce more
pollution at less cost than another round of clamp-downs on industry.

Air pollution regulators have long known this. The difficulty in
making things better has always been figuring out who should pay
the bill. When big business is required to put a scrubber on a
smokestack, big business pays. Most drivers of old cars and old
tractors aren't willful polluters, they just can't afford to buy
better cars or equipment.

Some programs are in place to buy old vehicles and equipment, paying
enough to enable the owners to trade up. They're running out of money.

Now there are promising signs in Sacramento that a group of
environmentalists, businesses and legislators has the ear of the
Schwarzenegger administration on the need to get the programs on
stable footing.

A solid retirement/replacement program costs between $200 million and
$400 million. The argument is still over who pays, especially with
the governor's allergic reaction to new taxes.

So aim for a $200 million program and consider two small taxes.

A penny-a-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuel raises about $170
million. An additional $2 on the fee to register a vehicle raises
about $45 million.

Those are probably the two most politically difficult taxes to
increase. And this plan asks the huge majority of people who are not
driving junkers or running dirty diesels to pay for getting rid of
them.

But the tax increases would barely be noticed, and paying a little
bit is fair because everyone who drives around on fossil fuel
contributes a little bit to air pollution.

Plus, absolutely everyone breathes the air.


[BATN: See also:

State plans to target clunker gross polluters, again
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/17908 ]