Signing Vehicle Emissions Bill a No-Brainer for Davis

SACRAMENTO

“Well, howdy,” the voice shouted from out of the dash. “I’m Cal Worthington.”

Him again.

“I’m here to warn you about something that’s very, very important to all of us. You know, they’re about to pass that new law in California that would prevent you from buying the vehicles you need and want ... let state bureaucrats push for huge new taxes on minivans, trucks and SUVs ...

“This is serious. And this bill is in the fast lane for final approval ... “

Little did Cal know. Nor I, as I drove my behemoth pickup through rush-hour traffic dragging three tons of boat and trailer back into Sacramento after two weeks at Lake Tahoe. Unbeknownst to me or Cal, I was driving into real, rare drama at the state Capitol.

It was late Friday. The bill’s backers then were secretly plotting to hatch a new measure--same substance, but a different number (AB 1493), to confuse Cal and other opponents. On Saturday, sponsors would quickly pass the bill in the Senate (23-16). Monday, the Assembly would follow during a bitter floor fight, sending the landmark bill to Gov. Gray Davis with no votes to spare (41-30).

New Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) would earn his leadership stripes by twisting arms for votes. Veteran Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) would demonstrate again that he’s the wiliest of legislators by quietly finessing the bill through his house.

Davis will eagerly sign the bill because politically it’s a winner. But it’ll be a far different measure from the demon characterized by car dealer Cal.

The bill--the nation’s first to fight global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles--merely directs the state Air Resources Board to establish carbon dioxide standards by 2005. They wouldn’t take effect until 2009, and the Legislature could toss them out. The ARB could not raise taxes or fees, ban any vehicle type or set speed limits.

Some personal background here: My pickup--a 1995 Ford F-250--is propelled by a mammoth V8 (7.5L, 460 CI) that has guzzled gasoline at a sorry rate of 9.4 mpg over its life. Pulling the boat to Tahoe over 7,200-foot Donner Summit, the truck runs at 5.6 mpg.

I love it. I’ll happily pay for the safety of acceleration, the ability to avoid lugging down behind some 25-mph big rig.

But Worthington’s “warning” to me as I near the end of this tense trip is badly misfiring. He’s blatantly distorting the bill. And, I’m thinking, it’s only logical that America’s auto makers somehow will find the technology to produce an affordable tow vehicle I “need and want.”

Seems I’m hardly alone in that thought. A recent statewide poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 77% of SUV owners favor the concept of the bill. Among all adults, there’s 81% support.

Such polling made this bill easier to vote for, but it was a pitched battle.

In the end, the Legislature split down party lines, with most Democrats backing the bill and Republicans aggressively opposed--typical GOP losing politics.

It was a far cry from previous generations when politically successful Republicans--President Richard Nixon, U.S. Sen. George Murphy, Gov. Ronald Reagan, Assemblyman Frank Lanterman--joined Democrats in pioneering clean-air legislation.

In many ways, this fight was reminiscent of a long-ago Sacramento era--before scandals, term limits and skittish leaders--when lawmakers routinely played skillful hardball and accomplished remarkable deeds.

“I couldn’t believe the politics involved,” says the author, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), a rookie who carried the biggest environmental bill in a generation. “I had no idea of the political dynamics.”

Wesson, who had been accused by pundits of lacking leadership, decided this was the place to make his mark. “This is one of those important issues where you break your pick,” he says. “There are still a few tools left in a speaker’s bag.”

Most Democrats wound up sharing the attitude of Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Panorama City), a swing voter who was worked over by Wesson. “I remembered that when I was a little boy in L.A., I couldn’t play outside at school because there were so many smog alerts,” says Cardenas, 39.

“The auto guys screamed bloody murder, that the world was going to end if we had smog controls. Lo and behold, a generation later we have cleaner air. We don’t have to tell our kids, ‘You can’t play outside.’ ”

Davis says he’s “strongly inclined to sign the bill.” No kidding. It will distinguish him from Bill Simon and President Bush, reassure core Democrats and establish his environmental credentials worldwide.

To paraphrase Cal Worthington, he’ll: Pick up the pen. Sign it now. Or real soon.