ILLUSTRATION: PAUL RYDING
Back in the late Sixties hot weather would bring a vile yellowish smog to hang over Los Angeles, causing or worsening all sorts of nasty breathing illnesses in huge numbers of the people. It was mostly, though by no means wholly, caused by dirty car exhausts. So Congress passed the Clean Air Act which meant that by the mid-Seventies cars would need catalytic converters. GM, Ford and Chrysler went mad, furiously lobbying against this imposition, saying the cars’ performance and economy would be ruined and the downtrodden customers would have to pay higher prices. That’s always how car companies do their lobbying: spin it that the poorer buyers are the victim, because eliciting sympathy for multibillion corporations is a much harder sell.