Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 You don't like choking on car and truck exhaust? Neither do we. Neither does the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which in 1996 required companies with more than 50 employees in the metro area (including WW) to put together in-house programs to cut employee car use by 10 percent. Simple goal. Simple program for the 1,100 affected companies to go after: All they needed to do was survey their employees' commuting habits, engineer a plan to cut car use by 10 percent, then resurvey their employees annually. Since 1996, DEQ has peppered local companies with information on how to comply with the program. There's no fine for not cutting car trips; all the companies have to do is make a "good faith effort" and fill out the paperwork. But three Portland-area companies apparently couldn't muster the interest to push a pencil, much less cut auto emissions. On Monday, DEQ officials announced that they were slapping fines on Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Portland, Bonita Pioneer Inc. of Tigard and Familian Northwest Inc. of North Portland. We applaud the agency's smackdown, and we'll go it one better by proclaiming each company a Rogue. And how do the three companies account for their behavior? Bonita Pioneer's Dale Bevan refused to answer questions about why the privately held company, which makes shopping bags and other paper products, didn't do the eco thing. Pepsi did not return a request for comment. But Jim Allen, of plumbing wholesaler Familian, faced the music. He says a departmental director completely dropped the ball, although he admits that's "nothing to hide behind." He says the company is on the verge of coming into compliance, but he has his doubts about how effective the program will be. The business operates 24 hours a day, he says, and half of the 195 employees commute from Vancouver, Wash., limiting car-pooling and mass-transit options.