scholarly journals Policy Evolution under the Clean Air Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Schmalensee ◽  
Robert N. Stavins
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Air Pollution Regulation

The US Clean Air Act, passed in 1970 with strong bipartisan support, was the first environmental law to give the federal government a serious regulatory role, established the architecture of the US air pollution control system, and became a model for subsequent environmental laws in the United States and globally. We outline the act’s key provisions, as well as the main changes Congress has made to it over time. We assess the evolution of air pollution control policy under the Clean Air Act, with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used. We provide a generic assessment of the major types of policy instruments, and we trace and assess the historical evolution of the Environmental Protection Agency’s policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s. Over the past 50 years, air pollution regulation has gradually become more complex, and over the past 20 years, policy debates have become increasingly partisan and polarized, to the point that it has become impossible to amend the act or pass other legislation to address the new threat of climate change.

Progress in State and Local Air Pollution Control under the Clean Air Act

AIHAJ ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 506-509
Author(s):  
CHARLES D. YAFFE
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Local Air Pollution ◽  
State And Local

scholarly journals Two Cheers for Air Pollution Control: Triumphs and Limits of the Mid-Century Fight for Air Quality

2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Local Experience ◽  
The Us ◽  
Clean Air

This article analyzes the early years of 20th-century air pollution control in Los Angeles. In both scholarship and public memory, mid-century efforts at the regional level were overshadowed by major federal developments, namely the Clean Air Act and creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Yet the mid-century local experience was highly consequential and presaged many subsequent challenges that persist today. The article begins with an exploration of the existential, on-the-ground misery of smog in Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s. The article examines the role that scientific evidence on smog did and did not play in regulation, the reasons smog control galvanized support across various constituencies in the region, and, finally, some of mid-century air pollution’s limits.

Evolutionary Environmental Policy: An Analysis of the U.S. Air pollution Control Policy

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Jin Cha
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
And Control ◽  
The U.S

The purposes of this study are to examine the nature of air pollution control and available policy instruments in the United States. Focusing on command-and-control (CAC), emission tax, bubble policy and emission offset policy, this study analyzes their theoretical frameworks and limitations. The analysis of this study suggests that the U.S. air pollution control policies have been evolved to deal with economic inefficiencies from the CAC approach. Reforming the pollution policy to market incentive systems could achieve the efficiency of pollution control. Possible policy implications are also discussed.

scholarly journals Conservation cobenefits from air pollution regulation: Evidence from birds

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (49) ◽  
pp. 30900-30906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanning Liang ◽  
Ivan Rudik ◽  
Eric Yongchen Zou ◽  
Alison Johnston ◽  
Amanda D. Rodewald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bird Conservation ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Pollution Regulation ◽  
Air Pollution Regulation

Massive wildlife losses over the past 50 y have brought new urgency to identifying both the drivers of population decline and potential solutions. We provide large-scale evidence that air pollution, specifically ozone, is associated with declines in bird abundance in the United States. We show that an air pollution regulation limiting ozone precursors emissions has delivered substantial benefits to bird conservation. Our estimates imply that air quality improvements over the past 4 decades have stemmed the decline in bird populations, averting the loss of 1.5 billion birds, ∼20% of current totals. Our results highlight that in addition to protecting human health, air pollution regulations have previously unrecognized and unquantified conservation cobenefits.

Transferability of Air Pollution Control Health Benefits Estimates from the United States to Developing Countries: Evidence from the Bangkok Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 1630-1635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauraine G. Chestnut ◽  
Bart D. Ostro ◽  
Nuntavarn Vichit‐Vadakan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
The United States ◽  
Air Pollution Control

scholarly journals Drawing Boundaries for Air Quality Control Under the Clean Air Act: The Importance of NOT Being Nonattainment

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
William V. Luneburg
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Air Quality Control ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Regulatory Controls

Much has changed with regard to air pollution control since 1970 whenCongress revised the Clean Air Act to assume a form that, in very broad terms,it retains today.  From a legal point of view, while states1 still retained at thattime wide-ranging discretion to design the regulatory controls necessary toattain the air quality goals of the Act, that discretion was significantly limitedwhen Congress revisited the Act in 1977.  State discretion diminished to aneven greater extent, particularly with regard to the air pollutants ozone, carbonmonoxide, and particulate matter, when President George H.W. Bush signedthe Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

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