Clean Air Act

Clean Air Act

The Federal Clean Air Act was enacted to regulate air pollution on a national level and is considered a cornerstone of America's environmental protection efforts.  The first legislation to bear the name “Clean Air Act” was enacted in 1963, with major revisions enacted in 1965, 1970, 1977, and 1990.  Much of the Air Quality Act of 1967 was rolled into the Clean Air Act.

Commentary

US Capitol building

Darrel Issa’s Government Handover

January 05, 2011

By Donald Cohen and Peter Dreier. Posted on Huffington Post. January 5, 2011.

Newly emboldened as chair of the House’s key investigative committee, California Cong. Darrell Issa, the conservative Republican, sent letters to more than 150 business lobby groups, asking them to identify government rules that they want eliminated.

Issa wants to hand the government over to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a who’s who of corporate America. The new Republican Congress is their opportunity to get rid of those pesky environmental laws, consumer product safety laws and even rules to prevent another Wall St. financial train wreck.

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smokestack and dirty air

Crying Wolf Again: Big Business Gearing up for a Fight Against Obama’s Environmental Program

May 11, 2009

By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen. Posted on Huffington Post. May 11, 2009.

In its first 100 days, the Obama administration did more to address global warming and the environmental crisis than the Bush administration did in eight years.

Obama knows, though, that the big environmental battles are still to come. In a interview last month, Lisa Jackson, Obama's EPA administrator, anticipated how opponents would attack the president's environmental reforms. "If you look at the history of environmental laws in this country, " she explained, "every time ... the lobbyists say, 'Oh, this will shut down the American economy. Every last one of you will lose jobs.' It's always these overblown, doomsday scenarios that overlook ... the fact that you can indeed build an economy towards green energy."

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Cry Wolf Quotes

Clean air, land and water are vital to all of us. But so are jobs, food, clothing and housing. We have to weigh the total impact on the environment along with the economic and social costs in order to clean up.

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Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Arch Booth, Chamber of Commerce Newsletter, May 1973.
05/01/1973 | Full Details | Law(s): Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act

Laws dealing with complex and technical problems were passed with much emotionalism, little debate, and even less of a data base for support.

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Gary D. Knight, Associate Director for Environment, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce Public Presentations
12/04/1975 | Full Details | Law(s): Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act

Because of our guilt—and because of the media’s espousement (sic) of the movement—laws were passed which asked industry and the American consumer for the impossible. The members [of Congress] admitted they did not know what could actually be done to clean up our environment, how long it would take or how much it would cost. But they went ahead anyway in the spirit of political expediency to ramrod through measures that would affect millions of people and billions of dollars…

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Gary D. Knight, Associate Director for Environment, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce Public Presentations
12/04/1975 | Full Details | Law(s): Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act
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Evidence

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