> When the Environmental Protection Agency announced tough new anti-pollution rules for autos last year, Detroit was aghast. "Arbitrary," said General Motors Chairman Richard Gerstenberg. Henry Ford II declared that his company could not meet the standardsa 90% reduction in hydrocarbon and carbon-monoxide emissions by 1975and that the timetable would require "suspension of most U.S. automotive operations."
The automakers therefore requested a one-year extension of the deadline, but EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus last week turned them down. After considerable study, he said, he had concluded that the technology for cutting pollution was "probably adequate," and that the automakers "have adequate lead...
