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Show The'Paper Thai Dares To Take A Stand June 14, 1973 The UTAH Independent Page 7 WERE VICTIMS OF POLITICAL GREED Continued From Page I con man for what he really is would be to admit that the public was a sucker, too gullible to recognize right from Big Brother Inspections much rather continue the fraud and allow the environment Tol Members of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on man to take his extra share. Motor Vehicle Emissions have officially expressed many reservations Consequences of the attack by organized consumerism on autoabout the Committees majority conclusion that, although the necesmobile manufacturers illustrate Dr. McKinney's point. The sary technology is not presently available, the larger automobile con men. in and out of public office, enlisting the force of governmanufacturers may be able to meet federal standards for emission ment, have victimized the motorist whom they were s. controls on pretend One reservation derives from the fact that protect. enforcement meaningful of the law will necessitate the construction of a nationwide network of inspection and maintenance stations. Con Men And Seat Belts Mr. Alexander Rihm Jr., Director of the Air Pollution Control American motorists have already been compelled to buy an assortProgram for the New York State Department of Environmental ment of expensive automobilesafety devices do not want, and they Conservation, says that inspecting a car to determine whether its m the future wdl be forced to buy more. Consider one item: seat emission-contrdevices meet federal standards will be a complex belts. Een if there were no economic or engineering arguments procedure. It wall require sophisticated equipment costing about against government intervention-by-forc- e in the matter of seat belts-eve$15,000, and the service (not a job for garage mechanics) of highly if it were an indisputable fact that seat belts do provide safety skilled technicians. Can you imagine, Mr. Rihm asks, what the for those who use them; and even if the federal government had expense would be and the inspection fees that would have to be constitutional authority to intervene (as it does there would be not), charged if this type of testing were done at 11,000 inspection no justification for government intervention, because a person who stations in New York State? refuses to use a seat belt does not thereby endanger anyones safety The cost to taxpayers and consumers for an adequate network of except his own. adequate testing stations in all fifty states and the territories could But the idea of allowing consumers free choice is intolerable to run into billions of dollars. The government cannot require the government regulators and consumer advocates. establishment of such a network, because the nation does not have On 1973-mod- el cars, consumers are already paying from thirty to the economic resources to do it. Hence, the Clean Air Amendments fifty dollars for a lap belt equipped with a light and buzzer which are Act of 1970 is an unenforceable law. It will pile new costs and other activated if the belt is not fastened. Many motorists disconnect the harmful consequences on consumers, but accomplish nothing worthdevice or deactivate it by buckling it behind them. while. Since some consumers will not use this expensive device that All of this has resulted from greed for political power on the part government forces them to buy, government has decided to retaliate of politicians, supporting clamorous allegations by consumer advoagainst all consumers by making them purchase a more expensive cates also motivated by lust for' power. When soberly examined, the device which they will have to use, and which will probably impair mountains of clamorous allegations are often found resting on molethe operating efficiency- - of their cars. On April 19, 1973, the Nationhills of truth. al Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it will require an interlock system on all cars manufactured after August Those Ecology Molehills IS, 1973. With this system installed in a car, a front-sea- t passenger Consumer advocates routinely and uniformly assert that autofastened around him must have a mobiles cause sixty percent of the problem of air pollution. Mr. before the car can be started. Deactivating this new rig so that the car Alexander Rihm Jr. says this assertion is a gross misrepresentation will operate without it will necessitate major changes by a skilled of the fact, and it results from people trying to make headlines by mechanic. Car industry officials have warned that the new- - device will oversimplifying the total problem of air pollution. Mr. Rihm told be very costly, will make cars difficult to start, and (because of its about a Member of Congress (whom he declined to identify) publicly have a as rate as malfunction three high complexity) may percent asserting that cars cause sixty percent of air pollution. When chalthe first of year during operation. lenged, the Congressman justified his misrepresentation by saying: In response to these warnings from industry, the National HighWe have to use this figure so that laymen will understand us. Mr. way Traffic Safety Administration amended its interlock system Rihm indicates that cars may actually produce four to ten percent of all contaminants that have harmful effects in the atmosphere. requirement to include an alternative system which will allow a car Dr. Philip Handler, President of the National Academy of Sciengine to be started but prevent the vehicle from moving until driver in are trussed the and front-sea- t safety apparatus. up passenger ences, says: Overall, natural production of hydrocarbons, carbon fully monoxide, and perhaps NOX nitrogen oxides J far exceeds that from man-mad- e sources. The Cost Of Emission Controls forced be will Emission-contrCar motors emit four basic substances which the government is devices which motorists eventually will devices than causing harmful effects on safety to buy will add more hazards to car driving trying to outlaw as and also on human beings and on all other life, plant and animal eliminate. The price to consumers of thus making matters worse for certain inanimate materials. The four substances are carbon monoxthem will be very high. Estimates of the cost of. emission-contride, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and lead. A 1972 report by the devices now being developed and tested range from S300 to $500 per Environmental Protection Agency said that car emissions of carbon . car small car as well as large tar. Hence, a median estimate of $400 added to monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides do great damage to per car for emission control seems reasonable. This $400 material and vegetation, but acknowledged that the cost of conof small cars considerthe selling price will increase consumer-cos- t consumer-cos- t of trols to eliminate these noxious emissions will be 8.1 times greater ably more proportionately than it will increase the the than the total damage the emissions cause. The E.P.A. said it had big luxury cars. In other words, the little consumer (always made no estimate of health benefits to be derived from politicians) will focus of the expressed concern of consumer-advocat- e will him than because of an almost complete lack of data about the pay proportionately more for the protection forced on health effects of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen the big consumer. oxides in the general atmosphere. extension On April 11, 1973, when announcing a partial one-yeCosts Added To Costs of the deadline for the automobile industry to meet emission-contrThe cost of original purchase is just the beginning of the expense devices will impose on car owners. standards set by the Clean Air Amendments Act of 1970, E.P.A. which the new emission-contrheavier officials said the Environmental Protection Agency had changed its New gadgets to malfunction will mean more repair bills, and cars may mean higher license fees in some states. A big, continuing position with regard to nitrogen oxides. The E.P.A. has discovered devices will be for that there are only two areas where nitrogen oxides are causing any cost occasioned by the new emission-contrthus serious problems: Los Angeles and Chicago. William D. Ruckelshaus, gasoline. The devices will decrease the efficiency of motors, cars have already then E.P.A. director, said he had already suggested that Congress act increasing fuel consumption. Devices on present means which quickly to review the situation and change the law which now increased fuel consumption by at least 4.6 percent devices are daily using requires a ninety percent reduction in emissions of nitrogen oxides that present cars with emission-contro- l be using by 1976. 12,600.000 more gallons of gasoline than they would of minimum a consume without the devices. The new models will cars. Some estimates Shot Full Of Lead twenty percent more gasoline than todays new How about the villain lead? An existing Environmental Protection say they will double gasoline consumption! lead-fre- e gasoline Agency regulation requires oil companies to make outlaw-leademid-197more 4, does not but the available to public by generally The fact that the new cars will consume twenty percent the fact that e gaso me gasoline. A recently proposed E.P.A. regulation (April. 1973) gasoline than present models consume, plus of all gasoline would gradually reduce the allowable will cost more, adds up to an increased cost for gasoline consumption until none has lead. This new regulation would slowly starve off the In other words.if amounting to $0,016 per mile. will be $192 a year motors produced before road all old cars with one thousand miles a month, your gasoline bill emission-contrdevices were required. Cars produced to meet all greater than now. requirements of the Clean Air Amendments Act of 1970 will be the new cars will be in on devices emission-contrMoreover, incapable of using leaded gasoline. in it. Consequent y, e lead has any that with gasoline In November of 1972, the E.P.A. published a paper entitled compatible rise because, m order to get must cars new the for of price gasoline EPAs Position On The Health Effects Of Airborne Lead. It sets millions of will spend necessarily the lead out of it, oil companies out the reasons and basis for regulating leaded gasoline out of dollars rebuilding refineries. existence. In a careful, scholarly analysis of this E.PA. paper. Dr. the consumers by on cost imposed Haroid h. Golz (medical director of the American Petroleum Insti-C,e- a Acfof ,970 could be for periodic tute)makesmestartlingclufge, are in compliance whether they Golz says the E.P.A. makes assertions which it does not even determine to of all cars in service perfect performassertions attcmpt t0 prove, with scientific evidence or otherwise with the requirement that manufacturers warranty tnousan or fifty devices for five years base(J entireiy on speculation, untested theories, and fallacious ance of all emission-contrContinued On Page 8 mjjcs Fakery Posse Legal Plays Used as Tax Rebels Fight IRS Reprinted from the Tacoma-New- s Tribune. May 23. 1973 SALT LAKE CITY(AP) They cars with fake stamp notices, form posses" to arrest government agents and refuseto file tax returns. They're a loosely organized group of Western tax rebels out to rid America of the income tax. The Internal Revenue Service 1975-model- tax-seizu- re ol calls them lawbreakers, n however, and says it isn't worried. It claims victories in recent court cases against tax rebels in Utah. Arizona and California. Several have received prison sentences, and cases are pending in a scattering of other states. Utah IRS director Roland Wise lawbreakers, - ar ol ol ol d lead-conte- nt Y' high-compressi- ol ol A?rJnd:,s - ol are martyrs d They range from Scripture-quotin- g Mormons to atheistic followers of novelist philosopher Ayn Rand. Nearly all are political conservatives, capitalists and critics of the Nixon administration, as well as every other administration. Many of the tax rebels are members of the Libertarian Party, which believes in severely limiting government power over the individual. Karl Bray, a Salt Lake City precious metals dealer, is chairman of the Libertarian Party and spokesman for a legal group organized to defend taxpayers - ol protesters self-style- and people who just plain don't want to pay their fair share. belt-combinati- ol the says . against the IRS. He says thousands of people in the West belong to anti-ta- x groups which meet regularly, but do not use names formal to avoid conspiracy charges. 'Taxation is theft," Bray says. "It is theft from productive people who are told they do not have the maturity and freedom to voluntarily pay for the services they receive." He says IRS agents violate citizens rights and income tax is unagainst free constitutional, enterprise and is Communist-inspire- d. says a source in the IRS told him 1 1,700 protest returns were filed in Utah last year by persons who took such steps as He overtly reporting f'se withholding exemptions. Wise says the number of protest returns was less than 100. The IRS isn't alone in rejecting tax rebellion. the County sheriffs in Utah and so-call- ed have turned away politically conservative groups who tried to enlist them in their cause. And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints has Idaho issued strong statements against Mormons not paying their taxes. I'm trying to ignore them because I don't like their tactics," said Sheriff Ford Smith of Idaho's Madison County after a group approached him connection with the citizens posse they formed. They remind me of the way vigilantes operate," he said. John F. Grismore of Bountiful. Utah, a Mormon and ...author of a book called "IRS Taxation or Plunder?" - Continued On Page 8 . |