Orange County Register, December 30, 2005

Regional smog agency is example of a smaller fish that thinks it rules the sea

When Ronald Reagan inveighed against Big Government the American people nodded their heads in strong agreement. Not only had government become too intrusive in people's lives, it had become arrogant and drunk with power and pride.

Sadly, too many government agencies and their officials continue to strut like tin-pot dictators rather than servants of the public. A perfect example is the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

The SCAQMD is the regional air-quality regulatory agency for the counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino. For years, the agency has been the scourge of many in the business community and has been accused of everything from institutional bias to out-and-out opposition to industrial expansion. However, it is not just the positions taken by the SCAQMD that make it so frustrating to those in the private sector. It is the attitude that comes with those policies that make the agency so infuriating.

Bill Whalen, a research fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who specializes in California public policy, has noted that the SCAQMD is too often guilty of hubris, which Webster's defines as exaggerated pride or self-confidence resulting in retribution. Whalen says this hubris stems from the fact that in California "the sad legacy of excessive government is an instinct to overregulate." This instinct becomes especially prominent when a government agency feels that other, even bigger agencies, are invading its turf. As Whalen observes, "it's the smaller fish who think they rule the sea."

The SCAQMD's small-fish-big-ego mentality was on full display in its recent childish response to an agreement between the California Air Resources Board and the railroad industry.

After lengthy discussions and negotiations, the ARB, Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to reduce diesel emissions by up to 15 percent to 20 percent over three years. Agreements of this nature are not uncommon, and they are increasingly utilized because they provide a reasonable expectation of the responsibilities of regulators and those they regulate.

When the SCAQMD heard about this agreement, however, the soot really hit the fan.

There is no question that the federal and state governments have authority to regulate the railroad industry. Yet, this authority did not stop SCAQMD officials from grandstanding in response to the agreement. They claimed the agreement "makes no sense" and "is a deal that was not for the benefit of the people." At a public hearing, SCAQMD board member Dennis Yates picked up a sheaf of papers and flung them to the ground, saying, "You can take this and do that with it as far as I'm concerned."

It's one thing for the SCAQMD to suggest changes or reforms to existing regulation, based upon its findings or technical knowledge. It is quite another for its members to throw a public tantrum at being denied the opportunity to further expand its power and oversight beyond the constraints of the law.

Hoover's Whalen points out that while business has often been painted as the bad guy in the pollution wars, the reality is not so black and white: "But as the SCAQMD's bad behavior shows, it's more complicated than that. Green entities that are also green with envy sometimes can be just as destructive." The result, in this case, is disruption of an agreement that is in the interest both of the private parties involved and the wider public.

That's why it's important for the public to get involved and insist that there be some limit to the eternity mindset of environmental regulators, who created the hamster wheel of compliance from which business and industry are never given permission to get off.

Lance T. Izumi is Director of Education Studies and Senior Fellow in California Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. He can be reached at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.