scholarly journals The health consequences of excess emissions: Evidence from Texas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Hollingsworth ◽  
David Konisky ◽  
Nikos Zirogiannis
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Health Consequences ◽  
Monthly Average ◽  
Ozone Concentrations ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Robust Evidence

Excess emissions are air pollution releases that exceed permitted levels and occur during facility start-ups, shutdowns, or malfunctions. While they are violations of the federal Clean Air Act, states have historically granted violating facilities automatic exemptions; limiting enforcement and weakening existing regulation. Recent efforts to harmonize state and federal rules have ignited debate surrounding optimal excess emissions regulation. Using Texas data from 2002-2017, we show robust evidence on the costs of excess emissions. We find that excess emissions increase harmful nearby pollution and elderly mortality, and are responsible for an average of 35 annual deaths in Texas alone. Using excess emissions as an instrument for ozone concentrations, we find that a 10% increase in monthly average ozone increases elderly mortality by 3.9%, driven by increased deaths in the oldest age groups.

scholarly journals Clean Air Act mitigate the cognitive deterioration in older adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Yao ◽  
Xiaozhen Lv ◽  
Chengxuan Qiu ◽  
Jiajianghui Li ◽  
Xiao Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mmse Score ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Cognitive Deterioration ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
The Government

Abstract Air pollution may accelerate cognitive aging, it is unclear whether large-scale interventions by Clean Air Act can mitigate the cognitive deterioration. Here, we conducted a difference-in-differences analysis based on Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey during 2014 and 2018. Intervention group came from where the government set a strict target of reducing air pollution, whereas control group lived in areas without reduction target. Global cognitive functions were measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). We found the intervention group with implementing Clean Air Act had a significantly smaller decline in MMSE score compared to the control group. Interquartile increases in PM2.5 and SO2 concentrations were significantly associated with a faster decline of MMSE score by 1.78 and 0.92 points, respectively. Implementing stringent clean air policies, especially in low- and middle-income countries may mitigate the risk of cognitive aging in older people.

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.

The Making of the 1967 Montana Clean Air Act

1987 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Melichar
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Process Approach ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Causal Responsibility ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
State Board

This article uses the social definitional process approach to understand the making of the 1967 Montana Clean Air Act. This approach holds that it is how the various competing social groups define the objective situation (air pollution) as problematic and then act on these definitions that counts. Based on their cultural meanings of the problem, the competing groups engage in claims-making activities that they seek to have legitimated in law. In the struggle for the legitimation of the various competing definitions, the groups attempt to claim ownership (disownership) as well as to assign causal and political responsibility for the problem. In Montana it was the clean air forces who were able to have their cultural meanings legitimated in law and who placed causal responsibility for air pollution on industrial capital and political responsibility for solving the problem on the Montana State Board of Health.

The Impact of British Domestic Air Pollution Legislation

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard A. Scarrow
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Policy Innovation ◽  
Elizabeth I ◽  
Queen Elizabeth I ◽  
Smoke Pollution ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Fifteen years have elapsed since the British Parliament enacted legislation designed to curb air pollution. The 1956 Clean Air Act appeared seven years in advance of comparable American legislation and well before the quality of the environment became a matter of world-wide concern. In view of the fact that Queen Elizabeth I had complained about smoke pollution in London, or that nineteenth-century novelists had penned vivid portraits of London's smoke and fog, the 1956 Act should perhaps be viewed as being at least a century late in appearing. Nevertheless, the Act did mark a distinctive policy innovation, particularly with regard to those provisions relating to smoke pollution from domestic sources. An analysis of the impact of those provisions will be the subject of this paper.

scholarly journals Impact of the Clean Air Act on air pollution and infant health: Evidence from South Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 98-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soohyung Lee ◽  
Heesun Yoo ◽  
Minhyuk Nam
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Infant Health ◽  
Clean Air Act ◽  
Clean Air
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