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Air Pollution

Air Pollution. The Search For Clean Air. What air pollution problems does the video identify? Where do the problems shown in video occur? What are the effects?. Air Pollution. Air is a vital resource Air pollution is good example of the development of environmental policy.

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Air Pollution

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  1. Air Pollution

  2. The Search For Clean Air • What air pollution problems does the video identify? • Where do the problems shown in video occur? • What are the effects?

  3. Air Pollution • Air is a vital resource • Air pollution is good example of the development of environmental policy

  4. Air Pollution - Domestic • Key terms • Point source • Area (mobile) source • Primary pollutants (emitted directly into ambient air) • Secondary pollutants (formed in the air after their components have been emitted) • Two key pieces of legislation • 1970 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments • 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments

  5. Early Development • 1880's - first efforts @ local level (e.g. Chicago & Cincinnati), aimed at smoke reduction • 1952 - first state law (Oregon) • 1955 - first federal law, the Air Pollution Control Act (extended in 1959 & 1962) • States offered federal technical assistance • States offered some federal funding

  6. Early Development, cont. • 1963 - Clean Air Act (CAA) • Federal government can intervene in interstate air pollution matters, but • Only at the request of the states • 1965 - Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act

  7. Early Development, cont. • 1967 - Air Quality Act • A precursor of the 1970 CAA amendments • Federal grant monies to states for planning & implementation purposes • Federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare to establish Air Quality Control Regions (AQCRs) • States to establish standards within regions

  8. Development By 1970 • Federal role • Most responsibility assigned to HEW • Research, training, $ directed to states • Voluntary cross-boundary dispute resolution • Permissive standards • States • Set & enforce standards • Both • Few deadlines

  9. Development By 1970, cont. • And considerable criticism • Slow federal action & reaction time (esp. by HEW) • Inaction by states • Inconsistency - standards vary from state to state • Too much readiness to cave in to strong resistance from industry

  10. CAA Amendments of 1970(The basis for today’s regulation) • Standards • Enforcement • States’ role • Some attempt at flexibility & variation • Enforcement authority to EPA • New agency • Supposed to set thresholds, write new standards, identify additional pollutants • Supposed to seek voluntary compliance, where possible

  11. Standards • National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) • Seven originally (particulates, hydrocarbons,SO2, CO, NO, O3, Pb) • Could by expanded by EPA

  12. Standards, cont. • Many sorts & many targets • Primary (human health) • Secondary (welfare) • New source performance • Best available control technology (BACT)

  13. States • Partial Preemption • States can submit State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for EPA approval • If approved, states can implement • Federal government (USEPA) to impose its own implementation plans if states do not submit SIPs, or if a SIP is not approved

  14. Flexibility & Variation • Attainment & nonattainment regions • New v. existing sources • Major v. minor sources • Deadline extensions

  15. CAA Amendments of 1970 • Federal, not state • Mandatory, not voluntary • Discretionary authority to EPA • Some flexibility • Deadlines, e.g. • SIPs to be approved by 1979 • All air quality regions to meet primary standards by 1982 (later extended, first to 1987, then again – still not fully achieved) • Primary emphasis on point sources

  16. CAA Amendments of 1977 • Prevention of Significant Deterioration in attainment areas added as a goal • Attainment areas reclassified into three subgroups • Class I • Pristine (little, if any, deterioration allowed) • Class II • Minor deterioration allowed • States can reclassify into class I or II • Class III • More deterioration allowed • But not beyond NAAQS • Visibility protection for parks, etc.

  17. CAA Amendments of 1977, cont. • Deadlines on several pollutants extended into mid-1980s • New standards for vehicles • States required to develop plans (by 1982) which would bring air quality up to EPA standards by 1987

  18. Air Quality By 1990 • When 1987 deadline was reached, 60 of the 247 then-existing Air Quality Control Regions did not reach standards • A few states (including California) were sanctioned after 1987 for poor performance under CAA

  19. Air Quality By 1990, cont. • Growing flexibility • Bubbles • Banking • Netting • Offsets

  20. Air Quality By 1990, cont. • Congress debated, but did not pass, amendments to CAA every year from 1981 to 1990 • Due to difficulties in reaching air quality standards • Amendments were often directed at extending deadlines (from 1977) or weakening standards

  21. CAA Amendments of 1990 • Most assertive and detailed Congressional (and Presidential) intervention into the clean air debate ever • Resulted from dissatisfaction with • Effectiveness of existing legislation • Slow pace of EPA regulation • Led to • Tougher standards • Technical Departures • Regulatory innovation

  22. Tougher Standards • More focus on nonattainment areas • More focus on mobile sources (e.g. E‑Check, specially formulated gasolines)

  23. Technical Departures • 189 toxics listed by the Congress for regulation • Bans (under Title VI) the manufacture &/or use of CFCs in U.S. by 2000 (per 1989 Montreal Protocol) • Acid Rain to be reduced via controls on SO2 emissions (esp. on large Midwestern point sources)

  24. Regulatory Innovation • Emissions Trading • Permits to emit to be issued by EPA, • May be traded (i.e. bought & sold) in a competitive market • Appears to have lowered costs of pollution control • Appears to have had little effect on air quality

  25. Underlying Patterns in Clean Air Policy • Gradual federalization of the field • Policy • Agencies • Gradual expansion of coverage • More toxics • More issues (e.g. where to put materials removed from emissions – into rivers, etc.?) • Stricter regulations – permissible ambient air lead levels reduced by 90% in 2008 (enforcement begins in 2011)

  26. Underlying Patterns, cont. • Legislative intervention into previously bureaucratic “turf” • Some bipartisanship • Some progress on goal achievement, but • Continuing criticism, e.g. • American Lung Association report (May, 2001) asserting that “more Americans are living with unhealthy air….” • Evolving standards (moving targets) • More contaminants subjected to regulation • “Thresholds” debate (how low to set them) • Evolving science implies continuing debates

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