Clean Air Act (United States)
Encyclopedia
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law enacted by Congress
, and signed by President Richard Nixon
on December 31, 1970 to control air pollution
on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants
that are known to be hazardous to human health. The Act was passed in 1963 and significantly amended in 1970, 1977 and 1990.
The Clean Air Act is significant in that it was the first major environmental law
in the United States to include a provision for citizen suit
s. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation, either implementing federal programs or filling in locally important gaps in federal programs.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 proposed emissions trading
, added provisions for addressing acid rain
, ozone depletion
and toxic air pollution, and established a national permits program. The amendments also established new auto gasoline reformulation requirements, set Reid Vapor Pressure
(RVP) standards to control evaporative emissions from gasoline, and mandated that the new gasoline formulations be sold from May to September in many states.
These changes reflect a significant change in scientific understanding about how ozone
is formed and depleted. Specifically, ozone's absorption spectrum covers UVC light
and shorter wave UVB, letting through UVA (which is largely harmless to people). Ozone exists in the stratosphere
, not the troposphere, exhibiting a lateral distribution because it is destroyed by strong sunlight; there is more at the poles. Ozone is made naturally when O2 comes in contact with photons from solar radiation. Therefore a decrease in the intensity of solar radiation also results in a decrease in the formation of ozone in the stratosphere. This exchange is known as the Chapman mechanism:
where M represents a third molecule necessary to carry off the excess energy of the collision of O + O2.
Depletion of Ozone occurs in the presence of Freon and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Following discovery of the Ozone hole in 1974, the 1987 Montreal Protocol
was successful in implementing a plan to replace CFCs. The speed and cooperation of the Montreal Protocol is viewed by some environmentalists as an example of what is possible for the future of environmental issues, if the political will can be garnered.
("attainment areas"), sources in areas that do not meet the NAAQS (nonattainment areas), and areas that are unclassifiable with respect to the NAAQS. Permits for sources in attainment or unclassifiable areas are referred to as Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) of air quality permits, while permits for sources located in nonattainment areas are referred to as nonattainment area (NAA) permits. The fundamental goals of the PSD program are to:
has done away with much of the system-gains in automobile efficiency since then. Because cars are more efficient, driving is less costly, so people now drive more on average, and this increased driving has overwhelmed the energy savings gained by the initial improvements in fuel efficiency. This same problem may be observed in the broader commercial sense when things are made more efficiently, driving down costs, so more units are sold, so that incremental improvements are overcome. This is what is so often lauded as improving profits and quality of life, but is environmentally damaging. Meanwhile, the focus is usually on the success of the solution, so drumming up further political support for the issue may be difficult. If individuals, corporations, and nations can externalize their costs, they will.
The amendment prior to 1990, ordered the EPA to construct a list of HAPs as while as health-based standards for each one. There were 188 air pollutants listed and the source from which they came. The EPA was given a ten-year time frame to generate technology-based emission standards. Title III is considered a second phase which allows the EPA to assess lingering risk after the enactment of the first phase of emission standards. It is also to enact new standards with regard to the protection of public health.
In the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970, Congress greatly expanded the federal mandate by requiring comprehensive federal and state regulations for both industrial and mobile sources. The law established four new regulatory programs:
The 1970 law is sometimes called the "Muskie Act" because of the central role Maine Senator Edmund Muskie
played in drafting the bill.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 required Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) of air quality for areas attaining the NAAQS, and added requirements for non-attainment areas.
The 1990 Clean Air Act added regulatory programs for control of acid deposition (acid rain) and stationary source operating permits. The NESHAPs program was expanded to control additional toxic air pollutants, and the NAAQS program was also expanded. Other new provisions covered stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority, and expanded research programs.
, particulate matter, carbon monoxide
, nitrogen oxide
s, sulfur dioxide
, and lead
), advancements in testing and monitoring have led to the discovery of many other significant air pollutants.
In 1997 EPA tightened the NAAQS regarding permissible levels of the ground-level ozone
that make up smog
and the fine airborne particulate matter that makes up soot
. The decision came after months of public review of the proposed new standards, as well as long and fierce internal discussion within the Clinton administration, leading to the most divisive environmental debate of that decade.
The new regulations were challenged in the courts by industry groups as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's nondelegation principle and eventually landed in the U.S. Supreme Court, whose 2001 unanimous ruling in Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc.
largely upheld EPA's actions.
do much of the work to carry out the Act. The EPA has allowed the individual states to elect responsibility for compliance with and regulation of the CAA within their own borders in exchange for funding. For example, a state air pollution agency holds a hearing on a permit application by a power or chemical plant
or fines a company for violating air pollution limits. However, election is not mandatory and in some cases states have chosen to not accept responsibility for enforcement of the act and force the EPA to assume those duties.
In order to take over compliance with the CAA the states must write and submit a state implementation plan (SIP
) to the EPA for approval. A state implementation plan is a collection of the regulations a state will use to clean up polluted areas. The states are obligated to notify the public of these plans, through hearings that offer opportunities to comment, in the development of each state implementation plan. The SIP becomes the state's legal guide for local enforcement of the CAA. For example, Rhode Island
law requires compliance with the Federal CAA through the SIP. The SIP delegates permitting and enforcement responsibility to the state Department of Environmental Management (RI-DEM).
The federal law recognizes that states should lead in carrying out the Clean Air Act, because pollution control problems often require special understanding of local industries, geography, housing patterns, etc. However, states are not allowed to have weaker pollution
controls than the national minimum criteria set by EPA. EPA must approve each SIP, and if a SIP isn't acceptable, EPA can take over CAA enforcement in that state.
The United States government, through the EPA, assists the states by providing scientific research
, expert studies, engineering
designs, and money to support clean air programs.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations must approve all federally-funded transportation projects in a given urban area. If the MPO's plans do not Federal Highway Administration
and the Federal Transit Administration
have the authority to withhold funds if the plans do not conform with federal requirements, including air quality standards. In 2010, the EPA directly fined the San Joaquin Valley
Air Pollution Control District $29 million for failure to meet ozone standards, resulting in fees for county drivers and businesses. This was the results of a federal appeals court case that required the EPA to continue enforce older, stronger standards, and spurred debate in Congress over amending the Act.
The Acid Rain Program
, created under Title IV of the Act, authorizes emissions trading
to reduce the overall cost of controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide
.
(LDAR) program to monitor and audit a facility's fugitive emissions of volatile organic compound
s (VOC).
The program is intended to identify and repair components such as valves, pumps, compressors, flanges, connectors and other components that may be leaking. These components are the main source of the fugitive VOC emissions.
Testing is done manually using a portable vapor analyzer that read in parts per million (ppm). Monitoring frequency, and the leak threshold, is determined by various factors such as the type of component being tested and the chemical running through the line. Moving components such as pumps and agitators are monitored more frequently than non-moving components such as flanges and screwed connectors. The regulations require that when a leak is detected the component be repaired within a set amount of days. Most facilities get 5 days for an initial repair attempt with no more than 15 days for a complete repair. Allowances for delaying the repairs beyond the allowed time are made for some components where repairing the component requires shutting process equipment down.
es (GHGs) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act for the first time on January 2, 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act. See Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act
.
ism has meant that those who reap the benefits (such as electricity or heating) often are not exposed to the immediate environmental costs (contaminated air or water). The energy/environment relationship has been changed by negative externalities accruing where and when people do not connect them with their own behavior and choices. Trans-boundary pollution changed this and politically changed pollution as a national issue. This was particularly true in Northern Europe in the second half of the 20th century and provided the impetus for some of the first real controls on industrial pollution, including the Clean Air Act.
Some people believe that the traditional model of exponential growth is anachronistic. John Gibbons
advocates in “Conservator Society Still a Dream” for an “equilibrium oriented model”, proposing that where in the economy cost factors are incorporated matters less than widespread recognition that it is necessary to include such factors in market pricing. A further alternative policy to the Clean Air Act might include efforts to build consensus in the economic sector on how to incorporate environmental costs and benefits into National Accounts
. Although this will be a very data-intensive process, as evidenced by the beginnings of such an undertaking by the Dutch in recent years, it is useful for the policy-making process, and invaluable for making informed decision. The derived conventional wisdom is limited and problematic without such an empirical basis for making assessments about tradeoffs between the Natural environment
and the economy.
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, and signed by President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
on December 31, 1970 to control air pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
that are known to be hazardous to human health. The Act was passed in 1963 and significantly amended in 1970, 1977 and 1990.
The Clean Air Act is significant in that it was the first major environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
in the United States to include a provision for citizen suit
Citizen suit
In the U.S., a citizen suit is a lawsuit by a private citizen to enforce a statute. Citizen suits are particularly common in the field of environmental law....
s. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation, either implementing federal programs or filling in locally important gaps in federal programs.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 proposed emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
, added provisions for addressing acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
, ozone depletion
Ozone depletion
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon...
and toxic air pollution, and established a national permits program. The amendments also established new auto gasoline reformulation requirements, set Reid Vapor Pressure
Reid Vapor Pressure
Reid vapor pressure is a common measure of the volatility of gasoline. It is defined as theabsolute vapor pressure exerted by a liquid at 100 °F as determined by the test method ASTM-D-323...
(RVP) standards to control evaporative emissions from gasoline, and mandated that the new gasoline formulations be sold from May to September in many states.
Components of Air Pollution Prevention and Control
Part B - Ozone Protection
In light of advancements in understanding of atmospheric chemistry, this section was replaced by Title VI in 1990.These changes reflect a significant change in scientific understanding about how ozone
Ozone
Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...
is formed and depleted. Specifically, ozone's absorption spectrum covers UVC light
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
and shorter wave UVB, letting through UVA (which is largely harmless to people). Ozone exists in the stratosphere
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...
, not the troposphere, exhibiting a lateral distribution because it is destroyed by strong sunlight; there is more at the poles. Ozone is made naturally when O2 comes in contact with photons from solar radiation. Therefore a decrease in the intensity of solar radiation also results in a decrease in the formation of ozone in the stratosphere. This exchange is known as the Chapman mechanism:
- O2 + UV photon → 2 O (note that atmospheric oxygenOxygenOxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
as O is highly unstable)
- O + O2 + M → O3 (O3 is Ozone) + M
where M represents a third molecule necessary to carry off the excess energy of the collision of O + O2.
Depletion of Ozone occurs in the presence of Freon and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Following discovery of the Ozone hole in 1974, the 1987 Montreal Protocol
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion...
was successful in implementing a plan to replace CFCs. The speed and cooperation of the Montreal Protocol is viewed by some environmentalists as an example of what is possible for the future of environmental issues, if the political will can be garnered.
Part C - Prevention of Significant Deterioration of Air Quality
Major stationary sources of air pollution and certain modifications to those sources are required by the Act to obtain an air permit before commencing construction. This permitting process is known as New Source Review (NSR). The NSR program applies to sources that are located in areas that meet National Ambient Air Quality StandardsNational Ambient Air Quality Standards
The National Ambient Air Quality Standards are standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under authority of the Clean Air Act that apply for outdoor air throughout the country...
("attainment areas"), sources in areas that do not meet the NAAQS (nonattainment areas), and areas that are unclassifiable with respect to the NAAQS. Permits for sources in attainment or unclassifiable areas are referred to as Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) of air quality permits, while permits for sources located in nonattainment areas are referred to as nonattainment area (NAA) permits. The fundamental goals of the PSD program are to:
-
- prevent the development of new nonattainment areas by ensuring that economic growth occurs in harmony with the preservation of existing clean air resources;
- protect public health and welfare from any adverse effects which might occur even in areas with air quality that meets the NAAQS; and
- preserve and enhance the air quality in national parks and other areas of special natural recreational, scenic, or historic value.
Part A - Motor Vehicle Emission and Fuel Standards (CAA § 201-219; USC § 7521-7554)
This part of the bill was extremely contentious at the time it was passed. The automobile industry argued that they could not meet the new standards and Senators expressed concern about the impact of this part of the legislation, in particular, on the economy. Specific new emissions standards for moving sources passed years later. Jevons paradoxJevons paradox
In economics, the Jevons paradox is the proposition that technological progress that increases the efficiency with which a resource is used, tends to increase the rate of consumption of that resource...
has done away with much of the system-gains in automobile efficiency since then. Because cars are more efficient, driving is less costly, so people now drive more on average, and this increased driving has overwhelmed the energy savings gained by the initial improvements in fuel efficiency. This same problem may be observed in the broader commercial sense when things are made more efficiently, driving down costs, so more units are sold, so that incremental improvements are overcome. This is what is so often lauded as improving profits and quality of life, but is environmentally damaging. Meanwhile, the focus is usually on the success of the solution, so drumming up further political support for the issue may be difficult. If individuals, corporations, and nations can externalize their costs, they will.
Title III - General Provisions
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed regulations of a list of categorized sources that emitted any number of the 188 hazardous air pollutants, as directed by the Clean Air Act. There are currently 174 categories with plans for the creation of emission standards. Both the new and current sources’ standards are based on “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT), which is defined as control technology being able to reduce the emission of HAPs as much as possible while taking into account the cost and other factors.The amendment prior to 1990, ordered the EPA to construct a list of HAPs as while as health-based standards for each one. There were 188 air pollutants listed and the source from which they came. The EPA was given a ten-year time frame to generate technology-based emission standards. Title III is considered a second phase which allows the EPA to assess lingering risk after the enactment of the first phase of emission standards. It is also to enact new standards with regard to the protection of public health.
Legislation
The first Clean Air Act was passed in 1963 and created a regulatory program in the U.S. Public Health Service. The 1967 Air Quality Act mandated enforcement of interstate air pollution standards and authorized ambient monitoring studies and stationary source inspections.In the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970, Congress greatly expanded the federal mandate by requiring comprehensive federal and state regulations for both industrial and mobile sources. The law established four new regulatory programs:
- National Ambient Air Quality StandardsNational Ambient Air Quality StandardsThe National Ambient Air Quality Standards are standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under authority of the Clean Air Act that apply for outdoor air throughout the country...
(NAAQS) - State Implementation PlanState Implementation PlanA State Implementation Plan is a United States state plan for complying with the federal Clean Air Act, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency...
s (SIPs) - New Source Performance StandardNew Source Performance StandardNew Source Performance Standards are pollution control standards issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency . The term is used in the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 to refer to air pollution emission standards, and in the Clean Water Act referring to standards for discharges...
s (NSPS); and - National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air PollutantsNational Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air PollutantsThe National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants are emissions standards set by the United States EPA for an air pollutant not covered by NAAQS that may cause an increase in fatalities or in serious, irreversible, or incapacitating illness...
(NESHAPs).
The 1970 law is sometimes called the "Muskie Act" because of the central role Maine Senator Edmund Muskie
Edmund Muskie
Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an American politician from Rumford, Maine. He served as Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, as a member of the United States Senate from 1959 to 1980, and as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981...
played in drafting the bill.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 required Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) of air quality for areas attaining the NAAQS, and added requirements for non-attainment areas.
The 1990 Clean Air Act added regulatory programs for control of acid deposition (acid rain) and stationary source operating permits. The NESHAPs program was expanded to control additional toxic air pollutants, and the NAAQS program was also expanded. Other new provisions covered stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority, and expanded research programs.
Regulations
Since the initial establishment of six mandated criteria pollutants (ozoneOzone
Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...
, particulate matter, carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
, nitrogen oxide
Nitrogen oxide
Nitrogen oxide can refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:* Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, , nitrogen oxide* Nitrogen dioxide , nitrogen oxide...
s, sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
, and lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
), advancements in testing and monitoring have led to the discovery of many other significant air pollutants.
In 1997 EPA tightened the NAAQS regarding permissible levels of the ground-level ozone
Tropospheric ozone
Ozone is a constituent of the troposphere . Photochemical and chemical reactions involving it drive many of the chemical processes that occur in the atmosphere by day and by night...
that make up smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
and the fine airborne particulate matter that makes up soot
Soot
Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
. The decision came after months of public review of the proposed new standards, as well as long and fierce internal discussion within the Clinton administration, leading to the most divisive environmental debate of that decade.
The new regulations were challenged in the courts by industry groups as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's nondelegation principle and eventually landed in the U.S. Supreme Court, whose 2001 unanimous ruling in Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc.
Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc.
Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc., , was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in which the Environmental Protection Agency's National Ambient Air Quality Standard for regulating ozone and particulate matter was challenged by the American Trucking Association along with...
largely upheld EPA's actions.
Roles of the federal government and states
Although the 1990 Clean Air Act is a federal law covering the entire country, the statesU.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
do much of the work to carry out the Act. The EPA has allowed the individual states to elect responsibility for compliance with and regulation of the CAA within their own borders in exchange for funding. For example, a state air pollution agency holds a hearing on a permit application by a power or chemical plant
Chemical plant
A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transformation and or separation of materials. Chemical plants use special equipment,...
or fines a company for violating air pollution limits. However, election is not mandatory and in some cases states have chosen to not accept responsibility for enforcement of the act and force the EPA to assume those duties.
In order to take over compliance with the CAA the states must write and submit a state implementation plan (SIP
State Implementation Plan
A State Implementation Plan is a United States state plan for complying with the federal Clean Air Act, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency...
) to the EPA for approval. A state implementation plan is a collection of the regulations a state will use to clean up polluted areas. The states are obligated to notify the public of these plans, through hearings that offer opportunities to comment, in the development of each state implementation plan. The SIP becomes the state's legal guide for local enforcement of the CAA. For example, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
law requires compliance with the Federal CAA through the SIP. The SIP delegates permitting and enforcement responsibility to the state Department of Environmental Management (RI-DEM).
The federal law recognizes that states should lead in carrying out the Clean Air Act, because pollution control problems often require special understanding of local industries, geography, housing patterns, etc. However, states are not allowed to have weaker pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
controls than the national minimum criteria set by EPA. EPA must approve each SIP, and if a SIP isn't acceptable, EPA can take over CAA enforcement in that state.
The United States government, through the EPA, assists the states by providing scientific research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, expert studies, engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
designs, and money to support clean air programs.
Metropolitan Planning Organizations must approve all federally-funded transportation projects in a given urban area. If the MPO's plans do not Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...
and the Federal Transit Administration
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administrations within the DOT...
have the authority to withhold funds if the plans do not conform with federal requirements, including air quality standards. In 2010, the EPA directly fined the San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
Air Pollution Control District $29 million for failure to meet ozone standards, resulting in fees for county drivers and businesses. This was the results of a federal appeals court case that required the EPA to continue enforce older, stronger standards, and spurred debate in Congress over amending the Act.
Interstate air pollution
Air pollution often travels from its source in one state to another state. In many metropolitan areas, people live in one state and work or shop in another; air pollution from cars and trucks may spread throughout the interstate area. The 1990 Clean Air Act provides for interstate commissions on air pollution control, which are to develop regional strategies for cleaning up air pollution. The 1990 Clean Air Act includes other provisions to reduce interstate air pollution.The Acid Rain Program
Acid Rain Program
The Acid Rain Program is a market-based initiative taken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to reduce overall atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which cause acid rain...
, created under Title IV of the Act, authorizes emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
to reduce the overall cost of controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
.
Leak detection and repair
The Act requires industrial facilities to implement a Leak Detection and Repair(LDAR) program to monitor and audit a facility's fugitive emissions of volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and...
s (VOC).
The program is intended to identify and repair components such as valves, pumps, compressors, flanges, connectors and other components that may be leaking. These components are the main source of the fugitive VOC emissions.
Testing is done manually using a portable vapor analyzer that read in parts per million (ppm). Monitoring frequency, and the leak threshold, is determined by various factors such as the type of component being tested and the chemical running through the line. Moving components such as pumps and agitators are monitored more frequently than non-moving components such as flanges and screwed connectors. The regulations require that when a leak is detected the component be repaired within a set amount of days. Most facilities get 5 days for an initial repair attempt with no more than 15 days for a complete repair. Allowances for delaying the repairs beyond the allowed time are made for some components where repairing the component requires shutting process equipment down.
Application to greenhouse gas emissions
EPA began regulating greenhouse gasGreenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es (GHGs) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act for the first time on January 2, 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act. See Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act
Regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act
The United States Environmental Protection Agency began regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution for the first time on January 2, 2011...
.
Theory
Robert Fri argues in “How Environmental Forces Shape Energy Futures” that energy and environmental policy making are inextricably linked. This perspective is echoed by many others including Robert Friedman and Rosa Bierbaum in their article “The Bumpy Road to Reduced Carbon Emissions.” Characteristics of environmental drivers include the need for an empirical understanding of the costs and benefits of pollution reduction and how they accrue to different groups. Where benefits and costs accrue to different players, conflict is increased. Over time, the mix of costs and benefits has shifted. Pollution used to be primarily local, and the same people used to reap the benefits and benefits of whatever system was used. Extensive distribution and higher levels of more centralized production have changed this system to be less democratic. Increased NIMBYNIMBY
NIMBY or Nimby is an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard". The term is used pejoratively to describe opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them. Opposing residents themselves are sometimes called Nimbies...
ism has meant that those who reap the benefits (such as electricity or heating) often are not exposed to the immediate environmental costs (contaminated air or water). The energy/environment relationship has been changed by negative externalities accruing where and when people do not connect them with their own behavior and choices. Trans-boundary pollution changed this and politically changed pollution as a national issue. This was particularly true in Northern Europe in the second half of the 20th century and provided the impetus for some of the first real controls on industrial pollution, including the Clean Air Act.
Some people believe that the traditional model of exponential growth is anachronistic. John Gibbons
John Gibbons (activist)
John Gibbons is an Irish environmental campaigner and the founder of the climatechange.ie website. He also co-founded the healthcare publishing and communications specialists MedMedia Group.-Journalism:...
advocates in “Conservator Society Still a Dream” for an “equilibrium oriented model”, proposing that where in the economy cost factors are incorporated matters less than widespread recognition that it is necessary to include such factors in market pricing. A further alternative policy to the Clean Air Act might include efforts to build consensus in the economic sector on how to incorporate environmental costs and benefits into National Accounts
National accounts
National accounts or national account systems are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that rely on double-entry accounting...
. Although this will be a very data-intensive process, as evidenced by the beginnings of such an undertaking by the Dutch in recent years, it is useful for the policy-making process, and invaluable for making informed decision. The derived conventional wisdom is limited and problematic without such an empirical basis for making assessments about tradeoffs between the Natural environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
and the economy.
See also
- The Center for Clean Air PolicyThe Center for Clean Air PolicyThe Center for Clean Air Policy is an independent, nonprofit think tank that was founded in 1985 in the United States. CCAP works on climate and air quality policy issues at the local, national and international levels...
(in the US) - Environmental policy of the United StatesEnvironmental policy of the United StatesThe environmental policy of the United States is federal governmental action to regulate activities that have an environmental impact in the United States...
- Emission standards
- Emissions tradingEmissions tradingEmissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
- Startups, shutdowns, and malfunctions
- Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk ManagementCommission on Risk Assessment and Risk ManagementCommission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management was a commission authorized as part of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 to develop recommendations for how the United States Environmental Protection Agency would perform risk assessment as a part of developing air quality requlations.The...
- Alan CarlinAlan CarlinAlan Carlin , is an American economist specializing in cost-benefit analysis and the economics of global climate change control. Carlin has worked as a Senior Operations Research Analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , since 1974. Previously, he was Director of the Implementation...
, controversy over the EPA carbon dioxide endangerment finding