EDITORIAL
A new script or a better cast Editor: James J . Morgan WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Assistant Editor: H. Martin Maiin, Jr. Assistant Editor: Carol Knapp Lewicke Assistant Editor: William S. Forester MANUSCRIPT REVIEWING Associate Editor: Norma Yess MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre ART AND PRODUCTION Head: Bacil Guiley Associate Production Manager. Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Layout and Production. Dawn Leland Advisory Board: P. L. Brezonik, R . F. Christrnan, G. F. Hidy, David Jenkins, P. L. McCarty. Charles R . O'Melia. John H. Seinfeld, John W.Winchester Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICALSOCIETY 1155 16th Street. N W . Washington, D.C. 20036 Executive Director: Robert W. Cairns PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATION D i V l S l O N Director: Richard L. Kenyon ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom Ltd For offices and advertisers, see page 758 Please send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing feafure manuscripts to Managing Editor For a u t h o r s guide and editorial policy see June issue page 517 or write Norma Yess Manuscript Reviewing Office In each paper with more than one author the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries a numbered footnote reference
By now, you have read in your local newspaper that transportation control strategies necessary to meet the clean air deadline-achievement of the national air quality standards by mid-1975-must be finalized by August 15. All told, 43 plans from 23 states involving 37 metropolitan areas are the concern, excluding, of course, the special case of Los Angeles. At the press conference on June 15 during which the acting EPA administrator Robert Fri announced his decision on such strategies submitted by the states, the tally showed that control strategies were approved for five air quality control regions in two states, approvable for three in another two; short of approval for 10 in seven; inadequate for nine in two; disapproved for 15 in seven, and late for one in one. States are playing their roles, but now the EPA must substitute all or portions of these plans and it all must be done by August 15. In words of the Advertising Council, Inc., "People start pollution. People can stop it." Perhaps it could never be truer than with the private automobile. One way simply is to reduce the NVMT, the number of vehicle miles traveled. And that is precisely what the strategies aim to bring about. Recently, the Supreme Court, in a 4-4 tie vote, upheld a lower court ruling on the antidegradation issue. Despite the fact that the high court did not satisfy approval of the legal issues-it was a tie and in such ties the lower court decision is upheld-it is the decision with which EPA must now abide. One comment is that we also have an antidegradation water policy, but it has had very little impact. It also received much publicity in past years. We wonder if the air policy will not slowly fade away too. Nevertheless, the law stands. It is the "best" we have and, in effect, we will have to keep and work at it at least until we get another script. The big issue is how reasonable are these transportation schemes. On timing, the U.S. is more than half way to that legislated deadline. It has been two and a half years since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 became law (Dec. 31, 1970), and it is now about two years before the deadline (July 1, 1975). Certainly much more must happen than has happened up to this point, if that deadline is to be met.
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