October 11, 1966
Page 26736
TO AMEND THE CLEAN AIR ACT IN ORDER TO AUTHORIZE AN INVESTIGATION AND STUDY TO DETERMINE MEANS OF PROPELLING VEHICLES SO AS NOT TO CONTRIBUTE TO AIR POLLUTION
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, pollution of this Nation's atmosphere is a subject of increasing concern to all the people of the United States. But there is a growing recognition that our air supply is not an unlimited open sewer in which we can dump the tremendous wastes of our expanding industrialized system.
The Congress first recognized this problem legislatively with the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963. Again last year, air pollution legislation was passed and again this year the Senate has acted on the subject, passing unanimously a bill which would increase the amount of funds dedicated to the air pollution control effort.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1965 are especially significant. These amendments dealt primarily with the subject of automotive air pollution. That legislation was an outgrowth of extensive hearings held by the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution during which automobile exhaust was cited as responsible for some 50 percent of our national air pollution problem.
The Division of Air Pollution of the Public Health Service has estimated that any place inhabited by 50,000 or more persons will have enough motor vehicles to create the potential for an air pollution problem. Nowhere has this been more evident than in southern California where the fight against automotive air pollution finally resulted in a California State law requiring all 1966 model automobiles to be equipped with pollution control devices. As a result of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1965, all 1968 model automobiles sold in the United States must be equipped with similar devices.
By the automobile industry's own admissions, this measure will not effectively reduce air pollution for a number of years. It takes, according to their figures, approximately 9 or 10 years for the automobile market to completely turn over, which indicates that not until 1978 will all automobiles be equipped with a pollution control device.
This is obviously not sufficient. It is highly unlikely that the emission control specifications presently set will actually reduce automotive air pollution. The expanding volume of new car sales indicates that automotive air pollution will not be reduced, that we will be fortunate to hold our own.
Therefore we must today begin to search for alternatives to the internal combustion engine, for alternatives in the methods of urban transportation and for improvements in the existing automobile engine and its pollution control device.
The American people were perhaps never more aware of air pollution, the problem and the potential problem, than during the week of September 18 when two major television networks dedicated an hour to this subject. The titles of the two shows, "Air of Disaster," and "The Poisoned Air," epitomize the stories they had to tell. In both instances, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the problems associated with automotive air pollution and, significantly, both productions discussed the commercial development of the electric automobile.
I am today introducing proposed legislation which would amend the Clean Air Act so as to provide for research into new methods of automobile motivation. This legislation will authorize the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to investigate and study practicable means of propelling vehicles so as not to contribute to air pollution. At the moment, and with the present state of the art, it appears that the most feasible alternative might be battery powered vehicles. However, our space-age technology indicates that the fuel cell used in our satellites might be adaptable to this purpose.
It is the intent of this legislation to investigate all of the alternatives and, more importantly, to spur the private sector to a greater awareness and a greater interest in altering their methods to meet this common problem.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The bill will be received and appropriately referred.
The bill (S. 3911) to amend the Clean Air Act in order to authorize an investigation and study to determine means of propelling vehicles so as not to contribute to air pollution, introduced by Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and Mr. RANDOLPH), was received, read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Public Works.