editorial - American Chemical Society

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EDITORIAL

Editor: Russell F. Christman Associate Editor: Charles R. O'Melia WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor, Stanton S. Miller Associate Editor: Julian Josephson Assistant Editor: Lois R. Ember MANUSCRIPT REVIEWING Manager: Katherine I. Biggs Assistant Editor: David Hanson Editorial Assistant: Karen A. McGrane MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre Assistant Editor: Nancy J. Oddenino Assistant Editor: Gloria L. Dinote GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Artist: Linda M. Mattingly Advisory Board: Robert J . Charlson, Arthur A. Levin, Roger A. Minear, James J. Morgan, Sidney R. Orem, Frank P. Sebastian, C. Joseph Touhill, Charles S. Tuesday, William E. Wilson, Jr. Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 872-4600 Executive Director: Robert W. Cairns BOOKS AND JOURNNALS DIVISION D. H. Michael Bowen, Director

Charles R. Bertsch, Head Editorial Department Bacil Guiley, Head, Magazine and Production Department Seldon W. Terrant, Head, Research and Development Department Marion Gurfein, Circulation Development ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom, Ltd. For offices and advertisers, see page 112

Regulation of the American dream Among labor-saving devices the automobile enjoys a unique status in the American value system. It has impacted our personal values of freedom, mobility, and prestige to the point where it is often regarded as an extension of the self. It has changed social patterns of work, recreation, education, and courtship; it has become a primary means of demonstrating social equity, and as a result has vastly broadened the American middle class. The automobile industry itself is a mainstay of our economy—one out of every six jobs. It has given rise to a vast number of smaller businesses and is the lifeblood of many other major industries. Furthermore, labor and management techniques developed in this industry have become useful models for other sectors of the economy. In short, the automobile is extremely important in this society; much more important, we are beginning to sense, than smog. Whether one personally agrees with this preeminence is less important than the realization of its existence. The congressional spirit behind the Clean Air Act of 1970 was not focused on overregulation of the American dream. The proposed controls are intended to alleviate only the shorterterm local and regional effects of smog. Actually, the emission controls proposed (CO, HC, and NOx) do not even include what may turn out to be the most significant impact of auto exhaust on the global ecosystem, i.e., C 0 2 emissions. Neither does the Act intend to correct other problems associated with the automobile, such as its role as an inadvertent land-use planner. The regulatory process has gone beyond this intention and has assumed authorities not given in the legislative mandate, which was to establish reasonable anti-smog standards. EPA has probably obtained all of the mileage it should out of the present emission regulations and should begin concentrating on other serious sources of air pollution. In this issue, Lee A. lacocca presents the views of the Ford Motor Company on federal regulation of the automobile. His article makes thoughtful reading and is most welcome in the feature pages of ES&T.

Please send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing, feature manuscripts to Managing Editor. For author's guide and editorial policy, see June 1976 issue, page 553, or write Katherine I. Biggs, Manuscript Reviewing Office ES&T

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