Group Says Vehicle Emission Limits Not Tough Enough

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 30, 2008 at 8:16 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

California environmental groups want to block the Environmental Protection Agency's approval of emission limits on cars and trucks in Southern California. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations say the EPA's restrictions on vehicle pollution aren't tough enough.

The groups say the emission limits won't protect nearly 1.5 million people in Southern California from breathing some of the most dangerous air in the country.

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David Pettit is the director of NRDC's Southern California Clean Air Program.

He says the EPA's emissions plan also paves the way for the state to expand freeways.

Petit: It creates an easier route for the state to show that any additional project isn't going to have a bad impact on the air quality that already exists. And it does that by basically de-emphasizing the very bad air quality that we have close to the freeways and instead allowing those numbers to be washed out by numbers that are far, far from the freeways.

Petit says a recent report by the California Air Resources Board shows that elevated air pollution levels can shorten the lives of state residents by as much as 10 years. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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