https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062016/oil-industry-clean-air-fight-smog-los-angeles-dress-rehearsal-climate-change-denial-exxonLos Angeles' smog began to rise to alarming levels in the early 1940s and swiftly became an economic and public health threat. On December 11, 1946, the Los Angeles Times ran a front-page article identifying a local refinery as the source. That afternoon, oil executives organized a group to determine the causes of smog, the responsibility the oil industry bore for it and what it needed to do to curtail the pollution. It became known as the Smoke and Fumes committee.In 1947, California became the first state to grant counties the authority to regulate smog, and Los Angeles set up its Air Pollution Control District. Desperate for a solution, city authorities skipped time-consuming research and brought in experts from cities such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis. In their haste, the officials erroneously blamed sulfur dioxide, another common pollutant. Oil refineries were big emitters, and under regulatory pressure, they spent millions of dollars to reduce sulfur dioxide.Smog in L.A. on Dec. 24, 1948. Credit: USC Libraries Special CollectionsBut the smog persisted because sulfur dioxide was only a minor contributor to the problem. This mistake stoked the oil industry's mistrust of regulators and their experts.Local academics eventually prevailed upon Los Angeles officials to research smog. The city hired Haagen-Smit, a rising star in plant biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Haagen-Smit was bothered physically by the acrid air and intellectually by the city's haphazard approach in dealing with it, according to Smogtown, a book by Chip Jacobs and William Kelly.
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