Clean Air Act

Moreover, the Clean Air Act, which imposed more federal authority over the states through the EPA program, provides a greater glimpse of how policy-making through more federal control can affect an economy and bring results. As discussed, the amendments added onto the Clean Air Act in 1990 ultimately increased federal authority as the EPA could set new regulations. Recently, the EPA has taken control of various state environmental programs thereby expanding its power. Nonetheless, the true question lies on whether these actions are detrimental to state sovereignty as well as their economies, or are they appropriate to fulfill the environmental protection agenda. According to the official EPA website, the Clean Air Act has successfully been

gross domestic product grew 212 percent.” The same report also claimed that 200,000 person-years of jobs in the air pollution control industry opened under the Clean Air Act. However, one can not rely on the data of the effects of a legislation from a website operated by those who maneuver the legislation. A self-appraisal may be expected from such source. Whereby, a 2012 article written by medical authors Kristie Ross, James F. Chmiel, and Thomas Ferkol under The Journal of Pediatrics titled The Impact of the Clean Air Act describes the significance of the legislation. In this article, the authors claim that the Clean Air Act must be supported because its regulations have helped prevent various diseases and premature deaths. Accordingly, the article stated that, “Clean Air Act regulations prevented 205,000 premature deaths and avoided millions of other nonfatal illnesses, including severe cardiac and respiratory diseases.” While the number of premature deaths prevented do not coincide with those cited by the EPA itself, it is critical to recognize that this article was written in