Clean Air Act

Legislation

By: United States Code

Date: November 15, 1990

Source: U.S. Code. "Air Pollution Prevention and Control." Title 42, Chapter 85, Subchapter I, Part A, Section 7401.

About the Author: The U.S. Code is the set of general and permanent laws that govern the United States. The House of Representatives prepares the Code and revisions are published every six years. The Code is arranged into fifty titles. Title 42 deals with Public Health and Welfare. Chapter 85 describes the laws pertaining to air pollution.

INTRODUCTION

Air pollution is the collective term for any substance that poses a risk to human health or to the environment and that can be found in the air. Common types of air pollutants include particulates, smog, and harmful gases. Examples of these harmful gases include nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, which contribute to acid rain; ozone, which contributes to smog; carbon monoxide, which is a poison; and carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. Chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are also considered air pollutants. CFCs reduce the amount of ozone in the stratosphere, increasing the amount of harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun that reaches the surface of the Earth.

In 1955 the U.S. Congress passed its first legislation in response to evidence of increased air pollution. This Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 identified air pollution as a problem and launched a public awareness and research campaign into the situation.

The first Clean Air Act was passed in 1963. It set standards for emissions of air pollutants by power plants and steel mills. Amendments to the Act were passed in 1966, 1967, and 1969. These regulations set standards for moving sources of emissions, like cars, trucks, and trains, and established research grants for improving fuel efficiency.

By 1970, Congress realized that the Clean Air Act required major revision. The Clean Air Act of 1970 established much stricter emission controls than its predecessor. It was an extremely ambitious act and industries were economically challenged to comply with its standards. This act was revised throughout the 1970s, extending deadlines and rewriting standards.

After two decades, Congress again revisited the Clean Air Act. In 1990 it underwent a major revision, strengthening standards and improving regulations. The Act contains six subchapters. The first deals with the programs and activities governed by the Act. The second sets emission standards for moving sources. The third subchapter discusses general provisions of the Act, such as impact assessment, monitoring and auditing. The fourth and sixth subchapters are concerned with acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion. The fifth subchapter deals with permitting for large stationary sources of air pollution. The first section of the Clean Air Act, included below, lays out the purpose of the Act.

PRIMARY SOURCE

CLEAN AIR ACT

7401. Congressional findings and declaration of purpose Sec. 101.

(a) The Congress finds—

1. that the predominant part of the Nation's population is located in its rapidly expanding metropolitan and other urban areas, which generally cross the boundary lines of local jurisdictions and often extend into two or more States;
2. that the growth in the amount and complexity of air pollution brought about by urbanization, industrial development, and the increasing use of motor vehicles, has resulted in mounting dangers to the public health and welfare, including injury to agricultural crops and livestock, damage to and the deterioration of property, and hazards to air and ground transportation;
3. that air pollution prevention (that is, the reduction or elimination, through any measures, of the amount of pollutants produced or created at the source) and air pollution control at its source is the primary responsibility of States and local governments; and
4. that Federal financial assistance and leadership is essential for the development of cooperative Federal, State, regional, and local programs to prevent and control air pollution.

(b) The purposes of this title are—

1. to protect and enhance the quality of the Nation's air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare and the productive capacity of its population;
2. to initiate and accelerate a national research and development program to achieve the prevention and control of air pollution;
3. to provide technical and financial assistance to State and local governments in connection with the development and execution of their air pollution prevention and control programs; and
4. to encourage and assist the development and operation of regional air pollution prevention and control programs.

(c) Pollution prevention A primary goal of this chapter is to encourage or otherwise promote reasonable Federal, State, and local governmental actions, consistent with the provisions of this Act, for pollution prevention. [42 U.S.C. 7401]

SIGNIFICANCE

One of the most important features of the 1990 version of the Clean Air Act is that it gives states significant control over air pollution issues so that they can establish standards and deadlines for improvements locally. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards for how much air pollution can be released throughout the country, each state develops its own implementation plan, or SIP, which describes exactly how it will fulfill its obligations under the act.

The Clean Air Act also establishes a permit system for large sources of air pollution, such as factories and power plants. This system clarifies the source's requirements under the SIP and condenses the information on the amount and type of air pollution that the source releases. The source must pay a fee for the permit and the fee is used to fund air pollution control activities.

Another major impact of the 1990 Clean Air Act is that it institutes a market-based approach for cleaning up air pollution. The EPA establishes pollution allowances for different sources of air pollution. If a business produces less pollution than it is allowed, it can trade or sell its allowances to another company. On the other hand, if a company releases air pollutants in excess of its allowance, it must acquire allowances through purchase or trade. This program allows businesses to make their own decisions about how they will best solve their air pollution problems.

The impact that the Clean Air Act has had on the air quality in the United States is extremely large. The EPA has developed computer models that calculate the differences in economic conditions and human health in the United States given the policies enacted by the Clean Air Act and in the absence of those policies. If the Clean Air Act were not in place, the models predicted that by 1990, approximately 200,000 additional Americans would have died prematurely and millions would have suffered from respiratory and heart diseases. The economic benefits of the Clean Air Act during its first twenty years were estimated at approximately $22 trillion, compared to the costs of the pollution reductions during the same time period, which were $523 billion.

A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences confirmed the EPA's claims that the Clean Air Act has greatly improved air quality in the United States. The report shows that emissions standards for trucks and cars, as well as controls on the quality of fuel used in vehicles, have greatly reduced the pollutants released in exhaust. The concentrations of air pollutants in most urban areas of the country have also decreased greatly. In particular, the deposition of sulfur through acid rain in the Eastern United States has been greatly reduced. The report also documents the economic benefits imparted by the Clean Air Act.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States, National Research Council. Air Quality Management in the United States. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004.

Periodicals

Lemonick, Michael D. "Forecast: Clearer Skies." Time (November 5, 1990).

Web sites

Fleming, James R., and Bethany R. Knorr "Legislation: A Look at U.S. Air Pollution Laws and Their Amendments." American Meteorological Society. ?http://www.ametsoc.org/sloan/cleanair? (accessed March 6, 2006).

"The Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, April 1993. ?http://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/peg_caa/pegcaain.html? (accessed March 6, 2006).