http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000067965aug22.story?coll=la%2D
news%2Dscience
August 22, 2001
LOS ANGELES
Touting a Telecommuting Trade-Off
Environment: The U.S. Transportation Dept. will grant smog emissions
credits to firms that let employees work at home.
By HUGO MARTIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Hoping to breathe new life into telecommuting efforts, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta kicked off a campaign in
Los Angeles on Tuesday to offer smog emissions credits to businesses
that get more of their employees to work from home.
Under the national pilot program, which is expected to begin by the
end of the year, businesses that earn the credits can use them to
meet air-quality requirements or sell them to other companies.
"By encouraging telecommuting, we mitigate traffic congestion, reduce
fuel consumption, improve air quality and enhance your business,"
Mineta said at a news conference attended by dozens of local
transportation and environmental officials. Details of the program
have yet to be worked out but, if successful, the project could add a
profitable new incentive for employers to keep their workers at home
and off the overburdened freeways.
Telecommuting appears to have lost its steam in the last decade,
primarily due to the resistance of employers who say that it breeds
resentment among co-workers and that telecommuters are harder to
monitor, according to experts.
In Southern California, only 8.6% of all employees have the
opportunity to telecommute, according to a survey by the Southern
California Assn. of Governments. That is down significantly from the
12.5% of employees who were allowed to telecommute in 1994.
Although other surveys show telecommuting is on the rise nationwide,
local officials say there are no recent statistics that describe the
telecommuting trend in Southern California.
The two-year pilot program, known as "E commute," is also being set
up in Denver, Washington, Houston and Philadelphia.
Businesses participating in the program will be able to use a special
computer program to calculate how much smog they reduce each day by
allowing employees to work at home. The program will take into
consideration how many employees work at home, how far they typically
drive and what type of vehicle they drive.
In Southern California, only those large companies that already meet
their air-emissions requirements can qualify to earn extra smog
emissions credits to sell.
"E commute represents an innovative means in which employers can
contribute to relieving traffic congestion and improving our air,"
said Ronald Bates, a Los Alamitos councilman and past president of
the Southern California Assn. of Governments.
In the next six months, the association, the South Coast Air Quality
Management District and other agencies will try to recruit 40 to 50
companies for the program. Once they have been trained on how to use
the software, officials at the AQMD will determine whether the firms
qualify for smog credits.
Companies with extra smog credits can trade or sell them at the
trading system known as RECLAIM, for Regional Clean Air Incentives
Market. The price of a smog credit fluctuates based on supply and
demand, but in recent years, the robust economy and better air
quality in Southern California have sent the price of such credits
soaring.
"We hope this type of incentive keeps on giving," said Mary Brooks
Beatty of the National Environmental Policy Institute. "As long as
you are continuing to telework, you continue to get credits."
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