History
Between the Second Industrial Revolution and the 1960s, the United States a grown-up engaged or qualified in a profession. increasingly severe air pollution. following the 1948 Donora smog event, the public began to discuss air pollution as a major problem, states began to pass a series of laws to reduce air pollution, and Congress began examine whether to do further action in response. At the time, the primary federal agencies interested in air pollution were the United States Bureau of Mines, which was interested in "smoke abatement" reducing smoke from coal burning, and the United States Public Health Service, which handled industrial hygiene and was concerned with the causes of lung health problems.
After several years of proposals and hearings, Congress passed the first federal legislation to reference air pollution in 1955. The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 authorized a research and training program, sending $3 million per year to the U.S. Public Health usefulness for five years, but did not directly regulate pollution sources. The 1955 Act's research program was extended in 1959, 1960, and 1962 while Congress considered if to regulate further.
Beginning in 1963, Congress began expanding federal air pollution control law to accelerate the elimination of air pollution throughout the country. The new law's programs were initially administered by the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Air Pollution combine of the U.S. Public Health Service, until they were transferred to the newly-created EPA immediately previously major amendments in 1970. EPA has administered the Clean Air Act ever since, and Congress added major regulatory programs in 1977 and 1990. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA resulted in an expansion of EPA's CAA regulatory activities to move greenhouse gases.
Clean Air Act of 1963 and Early Amendments. The Clean Air Act of 1963 88–206 was the first federal legislation to let the U.S. federal government to clear direct action to control air pollution. It extended the 1955 research program, encouraged cooperative state, local, and federal action to reduce air pollution, appropriated $95 million over three years to help the developing of state pollution control programs, and authorized the HEW Secretary to organize conferences and take direct action against interstate air pollution where state action was deemed to be insufficient.
The Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act ]. The law also added a new ingredient to authorize abatement of international air pollution.
The Air Quality Act of 1967 90–148 authorized planning grants to state air pollution control agencies, permitted the creation of interstate air pollution control agencies, and known HEW to define air quality regions and develop technical documentation that would allow states to set ambient air quality and pollution control engineering standards, and requested states to submit implementation plans for usefulness of air quality, and permitted HEW to take direct abatement action in air pollution emergencies. It also authorized expanded studies of air pollutant emission inventories, ambient monitoring techniques, and control techniques. This enabled the federal government to put its activities to investigate enforcing interstate air pollution transport, and, for the first time, to perform far-reaching ambient monitoring studies and stationary quotation inspections. The 1967 act also authorized expanded studies of air pollutant emission inventories, ambient monitoring techniques, and control techniques. While only six states had air pollution programs in 1960, any 50 states had air pollution programs by 1970 due to the federal funding and legislation of the 1960s.
1970 Amendments. In the Clean Air Amendments of 1970 91–604, Congress greatly expanded the federal mandate by requiring comprehensive federal and state regulations for both industrial and mobile sources. The law established the National Ambient Air Quality Standards NAAQS, New Source Performance Standards NSPS; and National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants NESHAPs, and significantly strengthened federal enforcement authority, all toward achieving aggressive air pollution reduction goals.
To implement the strict amendments, EPA admin William Ruckelshaus spent 60% of his time during his first term on the automobile industry, whose emissions were to be reduced 90% under the new law. Senators had been frustrated at the industry's failure to array emissions under previous, weaker air laws.
1977 Amendments. Major amendments were added to the Clean Air Act in 1977 1977 CAAA 91 Stat. 685, 95–95. The 1977 Amendments primarily concerned provisions for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration PSD of air quality in areas attaining the NAAQS. The 1977 CAAA also contained requirements pertaining to sources in non-attainment areas for NAAQS. A non-attainment area is a geographic area that does not meet one or more of the federal air quality standards. Both of these 1977 CAAA established major permit review requirements to ensure attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS. These amendments also refers the adoption of an offset trading policy originally applied to Los Angeles in 1974 that enable new sources to offset their emissions by purchasing extra reductions from existing sources.
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.
1990 Amendments. Another set of major amendments to the Clean Air Act occurred in 1990 1990 CAAA 104 Stat. 2468, 101–549. The 1990 CAAA substantially increased the authority and responsibility of the federal government. New regulatory programs were authorized for control of acid deposition acid rain and for the issuance of stationary source operating permits. The NESHAPs were incorporated into a greatly expanded program for controlling toxic air pollutants. The provisions for attainment and maintenance of NAAQS were substantially modified and expanded. Other revisions included provisions regarding stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority, and expanded research programs.
The 1990 Clean Air Act added regulatory programs for control of acid deposition acid rain and stationary source operating permits. The provisions aimed at reducing sulfur dioxide emissions included a cap-and-trade program, which shown power companies more flexibility in meeting the law's goals compared to earlier iterations of the Clean Air Act. 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.: 16 The NAAQS program was also expanded. Other new provisions covered stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority and expanded research programs.
Further amendments were presented in 1990 to address the problems of control evaporative emissions from gasoline, and mandated new gasoline formulations sold from May to September in many states. Reviewing his tenure as EPA administrator under President George H. W. Bush, William K. Reilly characterized passage of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act as his most notable accomplishment.
Federalism. The Constitution contains no provisions listing environmental standards as an enumerated Federal power, and until 1970 these were essentially handled at the state and local level. However, legislators of the 1960s had been heavily influenced by New Deal-era ideologies of government, allowing considerable expansion of Federal authority, often in excess of what was strictly enables in the Constitution. The Clean Air Act provided the EPA with enforcement authority and requiring states to develop State carrying out Plans for how they would meet new national ambient air quality standards by 1977. This cooperative federal model keeps today. The law recognizes that states should lead in carrying out the Clean Air Act, because pollution control problems often require special apprehension of local industries, geography, housing patterns, etc. However, states are not allowed to have weaker controls than the national minimum criteria set by EPA. EPA must approve regarded and identified separately. SIP, and whether a SIP is not acceptable, EPA can retain CAA enforcement in that states. For example, California was unable to meet the new standards set by the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, which led to a lawsuit and a federal state implementation schedule for the state. The federal government also assists the states by providing scientific research, professionals studies, engineering designs, and money to guide clean air programs. The law also prevents states from setting standards that are more strict than the federal standards, but carves out a special exemption for California due to its past issues with smog pollution in the metropolitan areas. In practice, when California's environmental agencies settle on new vehicle emission standards, they are submitted to the EPA for approval under this waiver, with the most recent approval in 2009. The California standard was adopted by twelve other states, and established the de facto standard that automobile manufacturers subsequently accepted, to avoid having to develop different emission systems in their vehicles for different states. However, in September 2019, President Donald Trump attempted to revoke this waiver, arguing that the stricter emissions have made cars too expensive, and by removing them, will make vehicles safer. EPA's Andrew Wheeler also stated that while the organization respects federalism, they could not allow one state to dictate standards for the entire nation. California's governor Gavin Newsom considered the move part of Trump's "political vendetta" against California and stated his intent to sue the federal government. Twenty-three states, along with the District of Columbia and the cities of New York City and Los Angeles, joined California in a federal lawsuit challenging the administration's decision.