East coast politicians burnish environmental credentials with a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits against industrial and power plant air pollution from the Midwest and other regions. Meanwhile, emissions from cars, SUVs and trucks in our own states attract scant political attention by comparison.

The tri-state region did not do so well in this year’s American Lung Association "State of the Air" report. The metropolitan region rose six places from twenty to fourteen in a list of the metropolitan statistical areas with the worst ozone pollution, according to a weighted average scale based on EPA data for ground-level ozone pollution.

It is possible that Fairfield County, CT’s bad rating is partly due to ozone emitted in New York City and even further upwind — ozone persists beyond its immediate emission. However, vehicle miles of travel are rising in Connecticut, and its recent record of providing alternatives to driving is uneven at best. Unfortunately, the press is taking its cues from the politics of the day, rather than hard data. The Connecticut Post mentioned the ALA study in a recent editorial, and congratulated regional officials for fighting out-of-state and out of country industrial emissions. Unfortunately, the editorial implied that industrial emissions are the main pollution culprit, failing to cite in-state motor vehicles as the main source of ozone pollution. The ALA study found that in US EPA "Region 2," which comprises New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico, 43% of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the air comes from highway or off-highway vehicles, while 60% of total nitrogen oxide emissions comes from highway or off-road vehicles (VOCs and nitrogen oxides are the main emissions that produce ozone pollution). In New England, 49% of VOCs comes from vehicle emissions, while 74% of nitrogen oxide emissions come from highway and off-road vehicles. Recent EPA studies have found that in most urban areas, over 50% of ozone pollution results from highway vehicle emissions, and that this rate is increasing.

The NY Times reported last weekend that vehicle fuel economy in the United States reached a 22 year low in 2002. While the auto industry been successful in boosting areas like horsepower, acceleration and speed, fuel economy (miles per gallon) has regressed.  In model year 2002, fuel economy averaged 20.4 miles a gallon, the lowest since 1980. The proliferation of light trucks and suburban utility vehicles in the 1990s reversed vehicle efficiency gains since the 1970s fuel crises.

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