Legislation
Congress passed the first Clean Air Act in 1963, creating a research and regulatory program in the U.S. Public Health Service. The Act authorized development of emission standards for stationary sources, but not mobile sources. 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 Standards (NAAQS). EPA was required to promulgate national standards for six criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, hydrocarbons and photochemical oxidants. (Some of the criteria pollutants were revised in subsequent legislation.)
- State Implementation Plans (SIPs)
- New Source Performance Standards (NSPS); and
- National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs).
The 1970 law is sometimes called the "Muskie Act" because of the central role Maine Senator Edmund Muskie played in drafting the bill. The EPA was also created under the National Environmental Policy Act about the same time as these additions were passed, which was important to help implement the programs listed above.
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 amendments moved considerably beyond the original criteria pollutants, expanding the NESHAP program with a list of 189 hazardous air pollutants to be controlled within hundreds of source categories, according to a specific schedule. The NAAQS program was also expanded. Other new provisions covered stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority, and expanded research programs.
Read more about this topic: Clean Air Act (United States), History
Famous quotes containing the word legislation:
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—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
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—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)
“Statecraft is soulcraft. Just as all education is moral education because learning conditions conduct, much legislation is moral legislation because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres of life.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)