With all due respect to T.S. Eliot, April is the busiest of months. This year, the action is jam-packed: April Fool's, Passover, Easter, and even daylight savings. But one milestone passed this week with less fanfare. April 1 marks the start of the smog season.
Most of us break loose from New Haven before we get to see the haze settle over the Green and Long Wharf on a balmy July day. For a region with so much green space, is air pollution an issue for the Nutmeg State? The Environmental Protection Agency seems to think so, ranking Fairfield County, and specifically Hartford, as the third most air-polluted urban area after Los Angeles and Houston. If that comes as a shock, we are not solely to blame-much of the air-borne mess blows northeast from New York and New Jersey.
Yet Connecticut does harbor 2.1 million cars for its 3.2 million people. After two decades of smokestack regulation on industries, automobiles have become an increasingly significant part of air pollution, accounting for 70 percent of our smog.
Thanks in large part to the federal Clean Air Act of 1990-arguably the most innovative piece of environmental legislation passed since the Environmental Protection Act itself-Connecticut is slowly cutting into the amount of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons coming out of our tailpipes.
Motorists may not have noticed any difference at the pump, but they have been using "cleaner" fuels since the beginning of 1995. That was when the state faced a requirement to use fuel with two percent oxygenates by weight. In order to achieve this goal, gas stations have used the fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, which helps to burn gas more completely and to reduce carbon monoxide pollution in cold weather.
New Haven lies just outside the southwest region of the state, which is required by the EPA to have even higher MTBE levels in its gas during the winter months. The addition of MTBE has brought down carbon monoxide emissions by almost 20 percent.
Do not credit MTBE, however, for Connecticut's gas prices. We have the nation's highest gas tax-35 cents and going up another four cents by next January-to thank for that.
Another effective weapon used by Connecticut to combat vehicle emissions-a stricter emissions test-has been put on temporary hold. When the new test is enacted, cars will get more of a workout, literally. Instead of being inspected while idling, cars will be placed on a high-tech treadmill called a dynanometer. The dynanometer simulates driving conditions, pushing the car up to 60 miles per hour while recording what comes out the tailpipe. Including the dynanometer in state inspections requires a centralized testing site system throughout the state, something which Connecticut has had in place since 1982. The EPA is hot on the dynanometer test, so other states which run inspections out of local garages and service stations have a fair amount of reconfiguring and training to do.
Faulty fuel systems and leaky gas caps are another target of the new inspection. This test, which involves pumping helium through the fuel line, has been nicknamed the "Connecticut test" for its state of origin.
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) estimates that the failure rate for inspections under the new system would jump up to around 20 percent, compared with the current seven percent. For post-1980 models, proof of $250 in repairs would be enough to obtain an inspection waiver. DMV anticipates that this program will lower air pollution by 35 percent for carbon dioxide, 31 percent for hydrocarbons, and 18 percent for nitrogen oxides. The new inspection would be required every two years, instead of annually.
Beyond singling out chitty-chitty-bang-bangs through tougher inspections, the state has also adopted the "California standards" for new automobiles. These guidelines impose stringent emissions standards for new models, with the first cleaner-burning cars appearing in Connecticut showrooms by next year. All of these much needed technological improvements should let us breathe easier. But what about the taboo option-foregoing the beloved car itself in favor of mass transit? We are not necessarily be aware of it as Yale students, but New Haven has remarkable transit options for a city of its size. Shoreline East trains carry 300,000 riders per year, Connecticut Transit buses haul seven million, in addition to plentiful Yale buses and Metro North. With plans to electrify Amtrak along the coast, New York to Boston will take only three hours, reducing highway congestion and eliminating diesel-powered engines.
Although Connecticut's recent vehicle emissions efforts deserve kudos, technological fixes may provide a smokescreen in front of the central need to reduce the number of cars on the road. Providing enticing incentives and viable options for mass transit must be the state's next move. Subsidizing transit fares and van pools for businesses would be a fine way to continue some good work.
Graphic by Jenny Kuo.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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