United States of America
Clean Air Act
Legislative
Law
Passed in 1963
The Clean Air Act is a federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants that are known to be hazardous to human health and/or welfare.
Congress passed the first Clean Air Act in 1963, creating a research and regulatory programme in the US Public Health Service. The Act authorised development of emission standards for stationary sources. 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 programmes:
- National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) - EPA was required to promulgate national standards for six criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur 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)
- National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs)
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 programmes listed above.
Since then, the Clean Air Act has been amended (in 1977 and 1990) to strengthen its effect, including adding regulations relating to acid deposition (to tackle acid rain) and stratospheric ozone protection.
The EPA's 2009 finding that GHG emissions endanger health and welfare opened the door to EPA regulation of substances for their GHG effect.
The EPA began regulating GHGs from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act for the first time in 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established, and the EPA is currently promulgating standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants and has announced plans to regulate GHG emissions from additional stationary sources.
Congress passed the first Clean Air Act in 1963, creating a research and regulatory programme in the US Public Health Service. The Act authorised development of emission standards for stationary sources. 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 programmes:
- National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) - EPA was required to promulgate national standards for six criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur 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)
- National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs)
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 programmes listed above.
Since then, the Clean Air Act has been amended (in 1977 and 1990) to strengthen its effect, including adding regulations relating to acid deposition (to tackle acid rain) and stratospheric ozone protection.
The EPA's 2009 finding that GHG emissions endanger health and welfare opened the door to EPA regulation of substances for their GHG effect.
The EPA began regulating GHGs from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act for the first time in 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established, and the EPA is currently promulgating standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants and has announced plans to regulate GHG emissions from additional stationary sources.
Documents
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Transportation fuel contains minimum 26 ---billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2018
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20% lifecycle GHG reduction for new renewable fuel producers
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At least 300,000 clean-fuel vehicles sold in California annually by 2000
from the Grantham Research Institute
from the Grantham Research Institute
