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With the passage of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act, Congress toughened national
efforts to control air pollution mainly by adopting new deadlines and processes to meet air quality standards for criteria pollutants. The 1990
amendments also addressed some new areas in the field of air pollution control, taking measures to reduce airborne toxics, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. It strengthened efforts to reduce urban air pollution, in part by imposing new restrictions on mobile sources (cars), and it adopted new market-based approaches to pollution control.
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FYI
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A 2003 study by the White House's Office of Management and Budget concluded that
improvements in air quality between October 1992 and September 2002 attributable to clean air regulations resulted in between $120 and $193 billion in
benefits because of the value of reductions in hospitilizations, emergency room visits, premature deaths and lost workdays. By comparison, costs to states,
municipalities, industries and individuals associated with clean air regulations were estimated at between $23 and $26 billion over the decade. Thus, benefits
outweighed costs nearly seven to one.
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(Source: Eric Painin, "Study finds net gain from pollution rules:
OMB overturns past findings on benefits," Wasington Post, September 27, 2003, A1).
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How these efforts will ultimately improve air quality is still unknown. The EPA says
that 146 million Americans now live in counties where monitored air in 2002 was unhealthy because of high levels of principal air pollutants; that overall more than
160 million tons per year of emissions of criteria air pollutants were spewed into the air by cars, trucks, industrial facilities and utilities, small businesses and other
sources; and that 124 metropolitan areas are still considered "non-attainment" for one of the six pollutants targeted by the federal Clean Air Act Still, compared with
an initial list of 230 metropolitan areas identified during the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment designation process as not meeting clean air standards, and compared
with the amount of emissions of criteria pollutants-- more than 300 million tons per year in 1970 -- there has been improvement overall since the 1990 amendments went into effect .* In addition, there are global problems -- such as ozone depletion
and global warming -- that defy strictly national solutions and require international agreements, such as the December 1997 Kyoto Agreement, to reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions. Other "air" issues, such as indoor air pollution, are not addressed by the federal Clean Air Act at all.
Moreover, none of the changes mandated by the law come cheaply. Industries large
and small have felt the effects of the federal Clean Air Act and regulations adopted pursuant to the act. Because the act greatly expands the scope of government
regulation, the government's cost of monitoring and enforcing air-quality law also has increased.
These anticipated economic impacts were a primary component in the debate over
the 1990 Clean Air Amendments and in the recent debate over the strengthening of the ozone and particulate matter standard. Still, the federal Clean Air Act and new
federal and state regulations are creating new markets for alternative fuels, pollution control equipment, and new services, thus creating new jobs. And supporters believe
that the economic value of the act's public-health benefits -- measured in fewer sick days, hospitalizations, and deaths -- more than offset initial economic costs.* A recent 2003 report from the Office of Management and Budget has largely confirmed this view (see FYI).
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