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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1977)
Page 12 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1977 Trust in auto makers cut by standards delay United Press International DETROIT — It has been 25 years since automobiles were tagged as the chief cause of smog in the na tion’s industrial cities. It will be another 15 years before foul gases are finally eliminated from their tailpipes. Many Americans can’t under stand why it has taken so long. “We’ve got tremendous technol ogy, we can send men to the moon and we’ve made tremendous ad vances in medicine,” said John Tobin of Lisbon, Maines, where air pollution is not the problem it is in New York or Los Angeles. Tobin, among average Americans queried in a nationwide UPI survey, speculated that “we could have a much better substitute for an engine than we have now” but the car mak ers “have set their own timetable.” “They’re going to do things their own way, he said. “They’re just not trying hard enough.” In 1970, years after government regulators determined tailpipe emissions must be lessened. Con gress decreed that stringent clean air laws should take effect in 1975. Detroit automakers claimed they needed 10 years instead of five and were able to delay the standards until 1981 in a classic business- government confrontation. Asked if the auto industry would seek more delays. Ford Chariman Henry Ford II, known for his straightforward answers, said, “No. “We’d like to stay out of Washing ton forever,” said Chrysler Execu tive President R. K. Brown. It will be the early T990s before the 110 million cars on the road are “clean” because the average car life is just over 10 years and the toughest standards don’t take effect until 1981. In fact, there are millions' of Americans still driving pre-1970 models with none of the built-in pol lution controls Detroit and Con gress have fought over. In the last decade, Detroit lost the confidence of its customers. Its word is of little weight in Washing ton and the 10-year skirmish over clean air standards has set the stage for similar confrontations over safety and fuel economy standards. “In looking at it in hindsight, I don’t know what we should have done differently,” said E. M. "Pete” Estes, the engineer-pres ident of General Motors Corp., the world’s largest auto company. Admitting the industry has a tre mendous credibility problem, Estes said it is impossible to legislate technological advances. “This is a thing that no one under stands except some dirty-hands en gineers like me who have had their noses knocked off and been burned a little bit a few times and are more careful in making predictions,” Estes said in a recent interview. “There are two ways to approach the problem. One is to be optimistic and fail and the other is to be pes simistic and then beat your forecast. “There is no way I know to hit the middle ground that everyone is Washington and everyone in the country would like us to do. And Middle finger not ‘obscene’ court decides that’s to be able to say: ‘That’s it. By 1983, we’re going to be able to do this with fuel economy and that with cost and this with emissions.’ “There is no way in God’s world to do that. Sometimes we go over the top and sometimes we fall flat on our face.” It all started a quarter of a century ago when the late Dutch-born Dr. Arie Jan Haagen-Smit of the California Institute of Technology labeled automobiles as the chief cause of the smog that blanketed Los Angeles. Soft energy urged United Press International DENVER — The nation’s deci sion to emphasize coal and nu clear power as replacements for dwindling oil and gas supplies rather than using renewable “soft” technologies could lead to economic and environmental dis aster, physicist Amory Lovins said Tuesday. In an address to the Society for Petroleum Engineers, Lovins said the disadvantages of “soft” sources such as solar, wind and thermal power have been over played and problems with “hard” sources ignored. Creating the technology and industry necessary to utilitize coal and nuclear power, he said, will require a $1 trillion invest ment by 1985, a figure which will devastate the economy. “We already know enough to begin the transition to soft energy sources.” Other advantages of solar, thermal and other similar sources include less lead time needed for development, a low risk of failure and less tax money required for development, he said. Briscoe wants inquiry United Press International AUSTIN—Gov. Dolph Briscoe Tuesday asked Attorney General Griffin Bell to order a federal inves tigation into the death of Joe Campos Torres, who drowned while in the custody of Houston police officers. Briscoe urged the U.S. Justice Department chief to order an in quiry to determine if Torres’ civil rights were violated before he drowned in a Houston bayou on May 6. Two former Houston policemen were found guilty Thursday of beat ing the 23-year-old Vietnam veteran after he was arrested for drunkeness and of pushing him into the bayou. An all-white jury in Huntsville, however, convicted Stephen Or lando, 22, and Terry Denson, 27, of the lesser charge of negligent homicide and gave them suspended one-year sentences. “The alleged action of these police officers, and possible others, in the treatment of Torres following his ar rest presents a question of whether federal law was violated, Briscoe said in his letter to Bell. Briscoe noted the maximum sen tence permitted under Texas law for the misdemeanor offense of negli gent homicide is one year in jail and a $2,000 fine but both officers received suspended sentences fr 0m Huntsville jury. “Peace officers are charged the duty of protecting all pe Rt , their custody and assuring that receive the protection guaraifr them by the Constitution and laws of the United States,” the ernor said. Briscoe requested a similar^ investigation earlier in the case Castroville town marshal vv] handed a 10-year aggravated „ sentence by a San Angelo juryfo shotgun slaying of Mexican-American prisoner, United Press International HARTFORD, Conn.—Giving someone “the digitus impudicus— otherwise known as “the finger— may be offensive but it’s not obscene, a Superior Court says. The case published today in the Connecticut Law Journal involved an “anonymous” high school stu dent, who was arrested after extend ing his middle finger in the direction of a state policeman. According to an appellate review of the case, the student was riding a school bus that was stopped at an intersection. A state trooper pulled up to the rear of the bus and the boy wiped the condensation off the rear window, waved a pal over and proceeded to make the gesture toward the trooper. “The trooper waited for the bus driver to turn off the flashing red lights, whereupon the officer turned on his siren, pulled the bus over to the side of the road, boarded the bus and arrested the defendant,” the court said. The youth was convicted in the Court of Common Pleas as a youthful offender for having made “an obscene gesture” and appealed to the Superior Court. The higher court overturned the conviction and ruled the boy innocent. The Superior Court said in its unanimous ruling that to be obscene “the gesture must be, in a significant way, erotic and must appeal to pru rient interest in sex or portray sex in a patently offensive way.” The court noted the use of the “di gitus impudicus,” or the middle finger, as a disrespectful gesture is of ancient origin and that Diogenes, a Greek Cynic philosopher who lived in the fourth century B.C., is said to have insulted the orator De mosthenes with it. “It can hardly be said that the finger gesture is likely to arouse sex ual desire. The more likely response is anger,” the court said. “Because the charge and the proof were limited to making an obscene gesture the defendant’s conviction cannot stand,” the decision con cluded. Monopoly Game- Popular real estate trading game. Board, dice, cards, playing pcs. & money . 9. 3.99 Vivitar 600 Point 'N Shoot Camera Outfit 3 element glass lens flashes per set of batteries. Built in electronic flash. 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