Clean Air Act (United States)

The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law which limits national air pollution. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended in 1965, 1967, 1970, 1977, and 1990, it is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws, and one of the most comprehensive air quality laws in the world. As with many other major U.S. federal environmental statutes, it is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in coordination with state, local, and tribal governments.
Regulatory Programs.
In the United States, the "Clean Air Act" typically refers to the codified statute at . That statute is the product of multiple acts of Congress, one of which - the 1963 act - was actually titled the Clean Air Act, and another of which - the 1970 act - is most often referred to as such. In the U.S. Code, the statute itself is divided into subchapters, and the section numbers are not clearly related to the subchapters. However in the bills that created the law, the major divisions are called "Titles," and the law's sections are numbered according to the title (e.g., Title II begins with Section 201). In practice, EPA, courts, and attorneys often use the latter numbering scheme.
Although many parts of the statute are quite detailed, others set out only the general outlines of the law's regulatory programs, and leave many key terms undefined. Responsible agencies - primarily EPA - have therefore developed administrative regulations to carry out Congress's instructions. EPA's proposed and final regulations are published in the Federal Register, often with lengthy background histories. The existing CAA regulations are codified at 40 C.F.R. Subchapter C, Parts 50–98. These Parts more often correspond to the Clean Air Act's major regulatory programs.
Today, the major regulatory programs under the Clean Air Act are:
History.
Between the Second Industrial Revolution and the 1960s, the United States experienced 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 discussing whether to take 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 address 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 Service 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 whether 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 Office of the U.S. Public Health Service, until they were transferred to the newly-created EPA immediately before 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 cover greenhouse gases.
Clean Air Act of 1963 and Early Amendments. The Clean Air Act of 1963 () was the first federal legislation to permit the U.S. federal government to take 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 support the development 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 () amended the 1963 Clean Air Act and set the first federal vehicle emissions standards, beginning with the 1968 models. These standards were reductions from 1963 emissions levels: 72% reduction for hydrocarbons, 56% reduction for carbon monoxide, and 100% reduction for crankcase hydrocarbons.. The law also added a new section to authorize abatement of international air pollution.
The Air Quality Act of 1967 () authorized planning grants to state air pollution control agencies, permitted the creation of interstate air pollution control agencies, and required HEW to define air quality regions and develop technical documentation that would allow states to set ambient air quality and pollution control technology standards, and required states to submit implementation plans for improvement 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 increase its activities to investigate enforcing interstate air pollution transport, and, for the first time, to perform far-reaching ambient monitoring studies and stationary source 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, all 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 (), 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 Administrator 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 cut emissions under previous, weaker air laws.
1977 Amendments. Major amendments were added to the "Clean Air Act" in 1977 (1977 CAAA) (91 Stat. 685, ). 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 included the adoption of an offset trading policy originally applied to Los Angeles in 1974 that enables 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, ). 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 gave 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. The NAAQS program was also expanded. Other new provisions covered stratospheric ozone protection, increased enforcement authority and expanded research programs.
Further amendments were made in 1990 to address the problems of acid rain, ozone depletion, and toxic air pollution, and to establish a national permit program for stationary sources, and increased enforcement authority. The amendments also established new auto gasoline reformulation requirements, set Reid vapor pressure (RVP) standards to 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.
Regulations.
Since the initial establishment of six mandated criteria pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and lead), advancements in testing and monitoring have led to the discovery of many other significant air pollutants.
However, with the act in place and its many improvements, the U.S. has seen many pollutant levels and associated cases of health complications drop. According to the EPA, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments has prevented or will prevent:
This chart shows the health benefits of the Clean Air Act programs that reduce levels of fine particles and ozone.
In 1997 EPA tightened the NAAQS regarding permissible levels of the ground-level ozone that make up smog and the fine airborne particulate matter that makes up soot. The decision came after months of public review of the proposed new standards, as well as long and fierce internal discussion within the Clinton administration, leading to the most divisive environmental debate of that decade.
The new regulations were challenged in the courts by industry groups as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's nondelegation principle and eventually landed in the Supreme Court of the United States, whose 2001 unanimous ruling in "Whitman v. American Trucking Ass'ns, Inc." largely upheld EPA's actions.
The Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) directs the EPA to establish national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for pollutants at levels that will protect public health. The EPA and the American Lung Association promoted the 2011 Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) as a means of controlling ozone and fine particle emissions. It was claimed that this prevented up 400,000 asthma cases and saved two millions workdays and schooldays that otherwise would have been lost to respiratory illnesses. Cities and power companies sued the EPA over the law in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, but the case was eventually decided in favor of the EPA.
Roles of the federal government and states.
The 1970 Clean Air Act required states to develop State Implementation Plans for how they would meet new national ambient air quality standards by 1977. Although the 1990 Clean Air Act is a federal law covering the entire country, the states do much of the work to carry out the Act. The EPA has allowed the individual states to elect responsibility for compliance with and regulation of the CAA within their own borders in exchange for funding. For example, a state air pollution agency holds a hearing on a permit application by a power or chemical plant or fines a company for violating air pollution limits. However, election is not mandatory and in some cases states have chosen to not accept responsibility for enforcement of the act and force the EPA to assume those duties.
In order to take over compliance with the CAA the states must write and submit a state implementation plan (SIP) to the EPA for approval. A state implementation plan is a collection of the regulations a state will use to clean up polluted areas. The states are obligated to notify the public of these plans, through hearings that offer opportunities to comment, in the development of each state implementation plan. The SIP becomes the state's legal guide for local enforcement of the CAA. For example, Rhode Island law requires compliance with the Federal CAA through the SIP. The SIP delegates permitting and enforcement responsibility to the state Department of Environmental Management (RI-DEM).
The federal law recognizes that states should lead in carrying out the Clean Air Act, because pollution control problems often require special understanding of local industries, geography, housing patterns, etc. However, states are not allowed to have weaker pollution controls than the national minimum criteria set by EPA. EPA must approve each SIP, and if a SIP isn't acceptable, EPA can retain CAA enforcement in that state. For example, California was unable to meet the new standards set by the Clean Air Act of 1970, which led to a lawsuit and a federal state implementation plan for the state.
The United States government, through the EPA, assists the states by providing scientific research, expert studies, engineering designs, and money to support clean air programs.
Metropolitan planning organizations must approve all federally funded transportation projects in a given urban area. If the MPO's plans do not, Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration have the authority to withhold funds if the plans do not conform with federal requirements, including air quality standards. In 2010, the EPA directly fined the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District $29 million for failure to meet ozone standards, resulting in fees for county drivers and businesses. This was the results of a federal appeals court case that required the EPA to continue enforce older, stronger standards, and spurred debate in Congress over amending the Act.
The law 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 decide 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 agency 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.
Interstate air pollution.
Air pollution often travels from its source in one state to another state. In many metropolitan areas, people live in one state and work or shop in another; air pollution from cars and trucks may spread throughout the interstate area. The 1990 Clean Air Act provides for interstate commissions on air pollution control, which are to develop regional strategies for cleaning up air pollution. The 1990 amendments include other provisions to reduce interstate air pollution.
The Acid Rain Program, created under Title IV of the Act, authorizes emissions trading to reduce the overall cost of controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide.
Leak detection and repair.
The Act requires industrial facilities to implement a Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) program to monitor and audit a facility's fugitive emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The program is intended to identify and repair components such as valves, pumps, compressors, flanges, connectors and other components that may be leaking. These components are the main source of the fugitive VOC emissions.
Testing is done manually using a portable vapor analyzer that read in parts per million (ppm). Monitoring frequency, and the leak threshold, is determined by various factors such as the type of component being tested and the chemical running through the line. Moving components such as pumps and agitators are monitored more frequently than non-moving components such as flanges and screwed connectors. The regulations require that when a leak is detected the component be repaired within a set number of days. Most facilities get 5 days for an initial repair attempt with no more than 15 days for a complete repair. Allowances for delaying the repairs beyond the allowed time are made for some components where repairing the component requires shutting process equipment down.
Application to greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions by the USA includes carbon dioxide and fossil methane. EPA began regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act for the first time on January 2, 2011, after having established its first auto emissions standards in 2010. Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act. The EPA's auto emission standards for greenhouse gas emissions issued in 2010 and 2012 are intended to cut emissions from targeted vehicles by half, double fuel economy of passenger cars and light-duty trucks by 2025 and save over $4 billion barrels of oil and $1.7 trillion for consumers. The agency has also proposed a two-phase program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for medium and heavy duty trucks and buses.
Below is a table for the sources of greenhouse gases, taken from data in 2008. Of all greenhouse gases, about 76 percent of the sources are manageable under the CAA, marked with an asterisk (*). All others are regulated independently, if at all.
Clean Air Act and environmental justice.
By promoting pollution reduction, the Clean Air Act can help reduce heightened exposure to air pollution among communities of color and low-income communities. Environmental researcher Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda notes that African American populations are "consistently over represented" in areas with the poorest air quality. Dense populations of low-income and minority communities inhabit the most polluted areas across the United States, which is considered to exacerbate health problems among these populations. High levels of exposure to air pollution is linked to several health conditions, including asthma, cancer, premature death, and infant mortality, each of which disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities. The pollution reduction achieved by the Clean Air Act is associated with a decline in each of these conditions and can promote environmental justice for communities that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and diminished health status.
Clean Air Act violations.
The EPA analyzes violators of the Clean Air Act and addresses the violators accordingly. For companies or parties that do not comply with the act monetary penalties can be cited. Per day the EPA could fine civil administrators $37,500 per day, with a maximum of about 8 days; unless otherwise mandated by the EPA. For a field citation which is against federal facilities which are not abiding by EPA standards can get fines up to $7,500 per day.
Major cases of Clean Air Act violations include:
Effects.
A 2017 study found that the Clean Air Act of 1970 led to an over 10 percent reduction in pollution ("ambient TSP levels") in counties that exceeded the pollution thresholds set by the Act in the three years after the regulation went into effect. The study found that this regulation-induced reduction in air pollution has caused affected workers to work more and earned one percent more in annual earnings. The authors estimate that cumulative lifetime income gain for each affected individual is approximately $4,300 in present value terms.
In addition, because air quality across the United States improved; it is estimated 205,000 premature deaths and millions of other respiratory complications were prevented which resulted in an economic savings of $50 trillion versus the $523 billion invested to meet the Clean Air Act standard.
Mobile sources including automobiles, trains, and boat engines have become 99% cleaner for pollutants like hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particle emissions since the 1970s. The allowable emissions of volatile organic chemicals, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead from individual cars have also been reduced by more than 90%, resulting in decreased national emissions of these pollutants despite a more than 400% increase in total miles driven yearly.
Since the 1980s, 1/4th of ground level ozone has been cut, mercury emissions have been cut by 80%, and since the change from leaded gas to unleaded gas 90% of atmospheric lead pollution has been reduced.
A 2018 study found that the Clean Air Act contributed to the 60% decline in pollution emissions by the manufacturing industry between 1990 and 2008.
Future challenges.
Climate change poses a challenge to the management of conventional air pollutants in the United States due to warmer, dryer summer conditions that can lead to increased air stagnation episodes. Prolonged droughts that may contribute to wildfires would also result in regionally high levels of air particles.
As of 2017, some US cities still don't meet all national ambient air quality standards. It is likely that tens of thousands of premature deaths are still being caused by fine-particle pollution and ground-level ozone pollution.
Air pollution is not bound to a nation. Often, air coming into the U.S. contains pollution from upwind countries, making it harder to meet air quality standards. In turn, air that travels downwind of the U.S. likely has pollutants in it already. Addressing this may require international negotiations of reductions of pollutants in the originating countries. This also relates to the challenge of climate change.
Criticism.
Diane Katz, a research fellow for the Heritage Foundation, criticized the validity of the Clean Air Act by stating, "The largest proportion of economic benefit is based on the value of avoiding premature mortality. Yet the valuation of this benefit ranks among the most significant uncertainties in the study, according to the researchers. Alternative estimates they cite would lower the benefit calculation by up to 22 percent." The Clean Air Act is a constant battle between current economic benefits versus future cost benefits of both health of the nation, and economy.