LEGISLATE FIRST, GET THE FACTS LATER

The Environmental Protection Agency's insistence on catalysts to control auto emissions would lead to sulfuric acid emissions that weren't there in the first place, an obscure pink sheet reported many months ago. The report has now been confirmed by high officials of an institution that ought to know: EPA.

"There is a potential for a bigger problem than we solved," said assistant EPA administrator Robert Strelow last month. "The danger point could come as soon as the 1978 models, and probably sooner in California."

Fortunately, EPA has the means and authority to solve problems that wouldn't have arisen without it. One possibility mentioned by Mr. Strelow is to use a trap to catch the EPA-induced poisons. (Followed by a trap-trap and a trap-trap-trap?) Another possibility is truly startling: extend the current emission standards until 1978. The idea is hardly new; EPA has been fighting it as doggedly as it has been promoting catalysts. What is startling about it is the way in which a bureaucrat can turn the simple statement "We botched it" into an inspiring call to protect the nation's health: "It would result in a lower use of catalysts in the next two years and delay the 1978 date when sulfate emissions from the devices could be a major health problem."

Among the auto companies, only GM seemed to enjoy being bludgeoned into catalysts, and they glorified the contraptions in full-page advertisements. What now? No immediate comment, said a spokesman lamely, but we stand on our previous statement on sulfates. The previous statement had said that catalysts produce no sulfates, and in any case, less than l% of the sulfur [?] content of the atmosphere is attributable to automobiles.

That is iron logic, and we wonder why Charles Manson did not use it in his defense. He could have said I didn't kill anybody, and in any case, the murders attributable to me are much less than l% of the deaths occurring in California.

But catalysts are not the only fruit of EPA's policy "Legislate first, get the facts later." It also ruled, on the flimsiest evidence of supposed health hazards, that the lead content of gasoline is to be reduced in phases until virtually eliminated. Under EPA's tutelage, car engines have been steadily losing power due to reduced compression ratios; the diminishing lead content of gasoline would have hastened this process, since lead prevents self-ignitions. But Ethyl Corporation, another one of the very few American corporations with spine and guts, took EPA to court, and after many years of costly litigation, the entire schedule of lead standards was finally struck down in January. EPA's decision making, ruled the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, was "a blind stab through a curtain of ignorance, inflicting anguish, but...not rationally solving any problem."