Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• .. i' N M MIG Responds ... ... M Ol ~ The EPA Hearings ~ N ! « en ~ Z (Radio broadcast 1984) ANNOUNCER: Citizens! The Commander of Health is pleased to announce that you are now breathing fresh, USDA certified clean air. Since the Department of Mandatory Health & Welfare assumed atmospheric control in 1977, the Sterile Air Program has made great strides_ Today, for the first time since 1848. the air is p~re! Yo~ are reminded that under the Immobility Act of 1982. ownership of private vehicles is prohibited. Any citizen caught operating a private vehicle will have his air supply revoked. This has been a public service announcement. We now return to an interlude of computerized music. W ...J (J >(J O"'~\. ~~ ~.,. ~ '" ~ L LOS ANGELES, CAL., AUG. 9 A panel of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency today heard public testimony on' the agency's "Los r--------------, IPlease accept the enclosed dona-" pion for $ to Ihe 48th I 'SOT. Send my souvenir sponsor I 1slicker 10: I 1 I"".:-:m:-:.,--------------1 1-,-,-- ---- '.ddr... 1 IdlY 1t. - - - - -zip- - - - - - - ' I s•• L ..1 FACTORY OUTLET FOR PREMIER HELM£TS STREET..., DESERT - MX DYNo-TUNING PREMIER YAMAHA 19721 BEACH BLVD. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA. 714 536-7555 , ". "''''~"f.l~ .•~. ~.": ~" ... , • • ., .. p.o. 80••••. CVp~esl. CA 90630 (7141 827·7421 COMPETITION MOTORCYCLE WHEELS DESIGNED, lUlL T AND REPAIAED. SEND 50C FOR CATALOGI ~'()iCYCLE ~58 :."t;o. COS~YQ~~hY (714) 646·3271 ~ Block north of 19 St.. Angeles Plan" for cleaner air. One critical part of the EPA proposal is a plan for transportation control. Under the original EPA edict of April 30, 1971, the states were given nine months to submit plans for meeting federal air qua Ii t y standards. A t that time, motorcycles were exempted from the federal emission standards. Since there was widespread doubt on the effectiveness of transportation controls and uncertainty regarding their effect on local economies, the EPA determined that states would not be req uired to include transportation control programs in their implementation plans. The city of Riverside and the National Resources Defense Fund challenged this decision, and filed lawsuits against the EPA. The court ruled in favor of the plain tiffs, and the EPA was.enjoined· to require tha t s ta tes include transportation controls. When, in January of this year, the EPA tIled its proposed plan for the metropolitan Los Angeles Intrastate Air Quality Con trol Region, it did pot include prohibi tiqns on the sale or operation of motorcycles. In subsequent hearings there was little testimony regarding . motorcycles, and the Motorcycle Industry Council stated its willingness to cooperate in setting and meeting emission standards for motorcycles. Then, in June, the EPA anhounced its revised plan, which proposed that 1974 motorcycle registration be limited to 1973 levels and that the operation of two-stroke motorcycles in the L.A. Basin be banned entirely in dayligbt hours during the smog season. No attempt had been made to set emission standards for motorcycles, or to establish valid test procedures. The EPA simply chose to impose restrictions on the sale and operation of motorcycles. Represen tatives of the MlC were on hand today to oppose the plan, and to dispute the inconclusive evidence upon which the drastic proposal was based. The Southwest Report Stuart Ross, attorney for the MIC, cited wide discrepancies in the technical evidence the EPA had used to support their plan for restricting motorcycles. The EPA figures on projected motorcycle emissions were generally contradictory and confusing, making it almost impossible for the M/C industry to analyze and evaluate the statistics. Ross charged that the principal study in question, done by the Southwest Technical Institute, provided a wholly inadequate basis for the EPA proposal. The Southwest Report, as admitted by its au thors, was only an initial research effort on M/C emissions, and .. that tests on a great many more machines are needed to obtain an accurate baseline ~missions estimate." The authors further noted that they had employed several test procedures, but th.at ..... little consideration has been given' to the poten rial usefulness of these procedures for anything except research purposes." Only seven motorcycles were tested in the study. and it was recognized in the report itself that the Triumph had bad rings. U.S. Suzuki noted that their 250 was seized up when it was returned, and concluded that improper oil had been used during the test. The study also included a test mode for freeway operation (about 57 MPH) althougb two of the bikes, a Honda SL-I00 and a Kawasaki F6-125, are not legal for freeway operation. The nature of the Southwest Report becomes obvious in view of an unsolicited pre-proposal its au thors sen t to the EPA. This document simply states, ''The objective of the propsed project is to provide EPA with an evaluation of the applicability of the LA-4 driving schedule to motorcycle certification testing." The researchers obviously wanted the EPA to know the study was only a f'll'St step in developing tests for motorcycle emissions, and that the LA-4 schedule (an au to testing standard) mayor may not be applicable to motorcycle operation. Considering the disclaimers included in the Sou th west Report, Ross registered the MlC's firm objection to the use of such a study as a basis for restricting motorcycles. He cited the concluding section of the report, in which the authors clearly stated the nature of their fmdings: ''The air poilu tion impact of motorcycles on individual metropolitan areas is not known at this time. Nationwide and regional emissions are only rough indicators of the actual air quality impact of any source on an urban area. n Ross went on to dispute estimates on the projected motorcycle population by 1977, and to question the predicted amount of motorcycle hydrocarbons (45 tons per day) in the Los Angeles area. Nothing in the Southwest Report was found to substantiate such high figures. In response to the EPA figures on explosive growth of the M/C population, Ross pointed out that this region had experienced an 8.7% decrease in motorcycle registrations from April 1972 to April 1973. Counterproductivity Under its legal responsibility to sanitize the air, the EPA has determined that photochemical oxidants (smog) must be reduced by 93%. This figure derives from the difference between the highest reading taken in Riverside in 1971 (0.62 parts per million) and the federal health standard (0.08 ppm). Among the programs necessary to achieve this reduction would be annual pre-registration inspections for cars, and retrofitting 1966-74 cars with catalytic converters. But even these controls would not results in a 93% reduction in smog, so the EPA proposes a set of measures to reduce the number of vehicles miles traveled (VMT). This plan rests primarily on the theory of making individu,!! au to travel less attractive, and bus and carpool travel more attractive. This would involve bus-and

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