By BILL DAWSON
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle Environment Writer

AUSTIN -- Taking aim at Houston's ozone problem, state officials adopted a historic plan Wednesday to erase a huge amount of air pollution across the metropolitan area by a federal cleanup deadline of 2007.

As expected, the smog plan orders sweeping cuts in industrial emissions, lowered speed limits, expanded tailpipe testing, morning bans on the use of certain equipment, plus many other measures.

The eight-county plan was adopted by three environmental commissioners appointed by Gov. George W. Bush, who was strongly criticized during his presidential campaign because of Houston's chronic air-quality problems -- particularly ozone, smog's main ingredient.

In 1999 and 2000, for the first time, Houston's ozone readings ranked as the nation's most severe -- even worse than the perennial ozone leader, Los Angeles.

After the commissioners' unanimous vote, a spokesman for Bush said they had produced "a very strong plan, which will result in cleaner air for the entire Houston region."

The plan includes opportunities for state officials "to continue working with local leaders to strengthen the plan, based on new data," said Bush aide Mike Jones.

During long months of work, officials at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission focused on making sure the plan will do two things -- gain required federal approval, then actually "clean up the air," Commissioner Ralph Marquez said.

The plan "will accomplish those goals," declared Marquez, a former chemical plant official in the Houston area who was one of its chief architects.

Officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency praised the TNRCC effort, giving no indication they will disapprove the plan. Rejection by the EPA -- widely considered to be a far-fetched scenario if Bush becomes president -- could trigger economic sanctions and bring an even tougher, federally designed smog plan for Houston.

The rules adopted by the TNRCC fall short of the pollution-reduction total the EPA has said the plan must contain.

But EPA official Becky Weber told the commissioners that federal officials will continue to work with the state to resolve any remaining questions over such issues as the plan's legally binding promise to adopt more cuts by 2004.

EPA Regional Administrator Gregg Cooke issued a statement from Dallas, calling the plan "an important first step," and urging state lawmakers to consider "additional incentive-based measures to encourage everyone, businesses and individuals, to take personal action to help clean the air."

As mandated by the 1990 Clean Air Act, the plan was designed to reduce ozone -- a cause of respiratory problems -- to levels below a national health standard.

To reach the standard, the plan must eliminate enough of the pollutants that form ozone when they mix in sunlight.

The smog plan "is very challenging and very expensive, but it spreads the pain fairly," Marquez said.

Houston Mayor Lee Brown complained, however, that the plan's morning bans on use of diesel construction equipment and on commercial use of gasoline lawn equipment "impose a disproportionately large burden" on businesses and workers.

Otherwise, Brown said he "wholeheartedly" supports the plan, because it promises "enormous benefits."

TNRCC officials are already trying to fend off several lawsuits challenging their similar but less demanding smog plan for the Dallas area, including litigation aimed at overturning a morning ban on construction-equipment use there.

Harless Benthul, a Houston attorney representing a construction industry coalition, told the commissioners the morning rule is not a cost-effective way to reduce ozone levels.

He said coalition members may file suit to block implementation of that part of the Houston plan.

A national environmental group, which has successfully waged legal efforts of its own to strengthen pollution-cutting plans elsewhere, also criticized the plan.

Ramon Alvarez, staff scientist in the Austin office of Environmental Defense, said it "will mean cleaner air for Houston and Texas," but fails to meet the ozone standard.

TNRCC officials calculate the plan must eliminate about 70 percent of the region's emissions of nitrogen oxide, its main target, to reach that goal.

The rules adopted Wednesday add up to about a 64 percent cut. But the plan also promises additional measures to make up the difference by 2004. A list of options includes such measures as tailpipe tests for diesel vehicles and greater use of innovative fuel-cell vehicles.

In one concession to protests they had received, however, the commissioners voted to exclude the eight-county region's three least populous counties from the morning bans for construction and lawn equipment.

Those same counties -- Waller, Chambers and Liberty -- can also avoid the tailpipe testing program if they adopt alternative emission-cutting measures.