Yearning To Breathe Free

Breathe Free Mobilized by growing public disgust over smog, a House panel proposes strict new emission limits that have automakers grinding their teeth

Over the years, California has given the rest of the country everything from health food to a taxpayers' revolt. Now it has bequeathed another far-reaching legacy to its sister states: a clampdown on auto-emission standards that could help transform the American car and the fuel that makes it run. To the discomfort of U.S. automakers, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee voted unanimously last week to adopt California's strict limits for the 1990s as the law of the land. The measure, which seemed certain to win House approval, would cut existing levels of tail-pipe pollutants as much as 60% from 1994...

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