EPA officials hint and outside experts predict that the rules will probably come close to the ultra-strict car pollution rules that California recently adopted. Those rules have significantly cleaned California's air. The San Francisco Bay area violated federal smog standards 65 times in 1969, but only eight last year.

The proposed changes are aimed primarily at nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, the key ingredients in smog. Although EPA officials would not discuss details, Browner told Knight Ridder Newspapers: "We are going to do something a little different and have both gasoline and tailpipe standards together."

Big EPA decision

Gene Karpinski, director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a conglomeration of environmental action groups in each state, called the proposal "probably the single most important decision that will come out of the EPA this year."

"If done correctly," he said, "it will have impact on clean air for more than a decade."

Sam Leonard, director of vehicle emissions for General Motors, agreed, "This is a big thing." He said the specific details in some of the proposals will decide "if this country's policies are going to be decided by logic or rhetoric."

Automakers and oil producers already are complaining that the EPA is looking at unreasonable regulations that could cost consumers too much money for only a little improvement in air that is vastly cleaner than it was in the 1970s.

California air regulators said the new standards would likely add $200 to the cost of a new car. The EPA estimated the bill at about $160.

Car companies said they don't even know if they can reach these standards in some cases, so they won't give cost estimates. The oil industry and EPA agree that taking sulfur out of fuel would add about a nickel to the price of a gallon of gas.

"You're not getting much emission reduction," Leonard said. "You're taking those vehicles from 98 percent (emission) control to 99 percent control. You're paying $200 for that 1 percent."

That small bit can make a difference, environmental groups said.

"Yes, cars are significantly cleaner than they were 30 years ago. But the real problem is that they still make up a third of the pollution in most of the country," said Jayne Mardock, director of the Clean Air Network. "The fact that we drive them five times as far kind of has outstripped that 95 percent cleaner part."

The 1990 Clean Air Act, which set new emission standards that went into effect five years ago, gives the EPA a chance to look at car emissions again now and propose tighter new regulations. The proposals wouldn't be final until the end of the year, are subject to change by Congress and would take effect in 2004.

"This is their one big chance to do it," said Ann Mesnikoff of the Sierra Club. "They've got to get it right this time around."

While 1997 was a record clean year for air, the summer of 1998 was a smoggy one with many cities - including Macon - violating federal standards. The air will worsen because Americans drive more than 2.5 trillion miles a year and that number increases by 2 percent every year, the EPA told Congress last year in a report laying the groundwork for these tougher emission standards.

Without new action, nearly 80 million people in 19 areas nationwide will breathe unhealthful air at some time in the year 2007, the EPA estimated.

Looking at Georgia

Two years ago the EPA adopted new thresholds for saying a city is too smoggy. The agency won't apply those tighter limits until next year, but if it applied them now, officials said 291 counties in the nation would be in violation. Seven Georgia counties - DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Richmond, Rockdale and Spalding - are on the list.

Smog mostly hurts people who have lung problems. The American Lung Association calculated that almost 16 million Americans suffer chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Another 14.6 million have asthma - which is skyrocketing among children, so much so the Clinton administration is proposing spending an extra $17 million to study the trend.

In Georgia, there are 428,122 people with chronic bronchitis and emphysema and 395,613 people with asthma, according to the American Lung Association.

"This isn't just an issue for the vulnerable, it's an issue for everybody," added Dr. Howard Frumkin, chairman of environmental health sciences at Emory University.

The Lung Association estimates that one in three people suffer during smog attacks. That includes all children, because of their undeveloped lungs, the elderly and people who work outdoors.

EPA, which last year went after power plant emissions, proposed to increase spending on air quality issues by 35 percent next year.

Of the four standards EPA is considering, the one that will have the most immediate impact concerns sulfur in fuel.

The level of sulfur - a rotten-egg smelling chemical - in gasoline varies wildly. It averages 600 parts per million in places like Chicago, but can be no higher than 30 parts per million in California by law. Nationwide the average is 330 parts per million, experts said.

Automakers said sulfur makes the high-tech pollution control devices in cars run inefficiently.

"Fuel quality does make a difference," said Reg Modlin, manager of emissions planning for DaimlerChrysler. "If they really want emissions reductions, they really have to hit the fuels."

Bill Becker, who runs the local and state air managers professional associations, said his groups calculated that a national low-sulfur standard near California's would reduce emissions to a level equivalent to taking about one of every four cars off the road.

But taking sulfur out of fuel would be costly - about $3 billion nationwide - and that would bankrupt some small regional family-owned operations, said Marc Meteyer, issues manager for the American Petroleum Institute. So the oil industry has proposed the alternative of reducing the sulfur content by half, to about 150 parts per million, in 22 eastern states with the worst smog problems.

"Why should motorists who enjoy wonderful air quality in Wyoming pay an additional nickel a gallon?" Meteyer asked.

The same car companies that want the EPA to take sulfur out of gas don't want the agency's other emission proposals that are likely to make cars more expensive.

"The two issues, regulating sulfur in fuel and tightening motor vehicle standards on cars and trucks, including SUVs, are inextricably linked. You cannot have one without the others," Becker said. "It would be really unfair to have the oil industry meet the 30 parts per million standard and allow the auto industry off the hook."

Becker's group calculated that over the next 20 years the other proposed rules "will achieve equal or greater emission reductions than low sulfur fuels."

Trucks and vans

The biggest car emission fight is over SUVs, pickups and minivans. Environmentalists said those SUVs and minivans are now used more as passenger vehicles and should live by the same smog standards.

"They are the most polluting passenger vehicles out there," said Roland Hwang, transportation program director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "People do not realize that what they're buying is actually higher polluting."

But to Detroit, it's not an issue of use or emissions. It's weight.

"Weight matters," DaimlerChrysler's Modlin said. "The heavier a vehicle that moves down the road, the more energy it takes to move it" and that means more emissions.

Automakers said trucks and minivans under 6,000 pounds - including most of the bigger sellers - can abide by the tougher standards, but not the heavier vehicles. These heavy vehicles have to be able to tow heavy objects and work for 120,000 miles and that can't be done while meeting emission standards for lighter vehicles.

GM's Leonard said, "You've got conflicting demands on the manufacturer. Do you want fuel economy or do you want (lower) emissions?"

This may not be the right way to clean up the air, said Jerry Taylor, natural resources director of the Cato Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington. These types of rules force people to keep older and dirtier cars because the newer ones get more expensive, he said.

"They slow down auto fleet turnover and auto fleet turnover is the main means we clean up urban air in this country," Taylor said.

After EPA issues its rules, get ready for a fight, Becker predicted: "These are very strong lobbies and we are taking on two giants."

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