Clean Air

Clean Air

Air pollution has long been one of the most significant negative impacts of industrial society. Smoggy cities lead to increased asthma rates and carbon emissions currently threaten the global environment. Under the Clean Air Act, and its various amendments, the Environmental Protection Agency is empowered to regulate American industry to minimize or eliminate the dangers posed by airborne contaminants. In 1990, Congress set up a cap-and-trade program to deal with emissions that caused acid rain and ozone depletion. It is a striking success.

Commentary

Clean Fuels Standard

Northeast Clean Fuels Standard = Thousands of Jobs, Billions of Dollars

August 16, 2011
Why on Earth Do We Listen to Those Who Cry Wolf?

Why on Earth Do We Listen to Those Who Cry Wolf?

July 28, 2011

Republicans Can't Name A Single "Job Killer" Regulation

January 25, 2011
US Capitol building

Darrel Issa’s Government Handover

January 05, 2011

Cry Wolf Quotes

The present state of knowledge on the causes and effects of acid rain is, at best, ambiguous… There is time for science to guide the public policy debate.

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National Association of Manufacturers. 1987.
01/01/1987 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Air Act of 1990

This is the biggest conspiracy between the public sector, big banks and government that Americans have ever seen and you the ratepayers are going to pay the price…. This is not about a clean environment. This is not about green energy. This is about raising taxes on your energy and passing that energy rate tax onto you the ratepayer.

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Steve Lonegan, director of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity

[Further decreasing auto emissions] is not feasible or necessary and that congressional dictates to do so would be financially ruinous.

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Anonymous auto industry executves. BLIND SPOT: THE BIG THREE’S ATTACK ON THE GLOBAL WARMING TREATY, The Environmental Working Group
03/26/1990 | Full Details | Law(s): Clean Air Act of 1990

There is no evidence that [leaded gasoline] has introduced a danger in the field of public health…lead is an inevitable element in the surface of the earth, in its vegetation, in its animal life, and that there is no way in which man has ever been able to escape the absorption of lead while living in this planet.

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Robert Kehoe, a scientist “cultivated by industry as the dominant authority on lead”, Clean air act hearings. Environmental Research.

Evidence

Backgrounders & Briefs

Good Rules: Ten Stories Of Successful Regulation

Demos looks at ten laws and rules that we take for granted.

The Secret History of Lead

This immense article is an intricately detailed history of leaded gasoline, from the industry's early cover-ups to their attempts to defeat EPA regulations.

The Removal of Lead From Gasoline: Historical and Personal Reflections

First-person historical analysis of the leaded gasoline fight.

Resources

Political Economy Research Institute is a think tank focused on a variety of subjects such as diverse financial regulation, living wages and environmental protection.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the agency that oversees auto and highway safety regulations, auto recalls, and CAFE standards.

Blue Green Alliance is an alliance of labor and environmental organizations.

Green for All is a leading environmental oranization focused on creating green jobs for low-income communities and people of color.