In June 1989 President Bush projected sweeping revisions to the Clean Air Act. Building on Congressional proposals advanced during the 1980s, the President proposed legislation designed to curb three major threats to the nation's environment and to the health of millions of Americans. These focussed on addressing acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic air emissions. The legislation also called for establishing a National Permits’ program to make the law more workable, as well as an improved enforcement program to help ensure better compliance with the Act. The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. David Popp states that “by affecting the nature of innovation, …show more content…
The question of whether 1970s-era environmental laws are suited to today's problems is gaining urgency as the Obama administration moves to tackle climate change through its powers under the Act. Likens, Butler and Buso come to the conclusion that “short-term records can be quite misleading; thus, it may be too early to assess critically the effectiveness of the 1990 CAA” (Likens et al, 2001, p.9). Business groups and critics in Congress say that the measure was not designed to address global warming, and that the law's provisions will lead to regulations that wind up stifling growth and killing jobs. The Obama administration says the effects of greenhouse gases compel action, as does a 2007 Supreme Court decision. The court found that the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions if the agency determines they cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. Moreover, administration officials say, the EPA has the authority to tweak the thresholds, so as to regulate only big emitters, such as power plants and refineries, and minimize the economic costs. The EPA has not said how much it expects new controls on greenhouse-gas emissions would cost the
The Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline are two pipeline projects that were suspended in the past. These pipelines were stopped because they could have a big impact of people and the environment. The making of these pipelines would cause a great amount of carbon pollution. Recently, President Trump signed the orders to approve the pipeline project. The projects have pros and cons, the people in favor of the pipelines think we would be able to rely less on foreign oil. The people against the pipeline believe that the pipelines would cause the release of gases into the air that could be harmful for other people.
City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. “L.A. Made a Difference!” Los Angeles, CA: US. 1998. www.cityofla.org/EAD/article3.htm
chain. The use of lead in gasoline was phased out in '73 which caused lead
Kenneth Schiff wrote an editorial for the Marine Pollution Bulletin in 2014 where he asked environmental scientist about the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act. Three topics were discussed to support their approval; The Cuyahoga River, Platform A and declines in marine life. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio had hit a point 1969 where there was so much oil on the surface of that it caught on fire and now it has been deemed as fishable by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, thanks to the Clean Water Act. Platform A was located in Southern California. In 1969, an explosion occurred, causing 100,000 barrels of oil to devastate beaches along the Pacific Ocean and kill thousands of animals located in this region. Also discussed was the effects of hazardous substances, in this example DDT, on marine life. The use of this pesticide caused brown pelicans and California sea lions to experience intense decline in population- thanks to the Clean Water Act being followed by much research, restrictions and bans were able to be placed on these chemicals, allowing these populations to flourish once more. Within this editorial, there is also many who state that this Act has not been effective enough. One big argument is that the EPA has a list of pollutants that has not changed since the 1970’s yet in the last 40 years, there has
U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency. (2011, January 13). Retrieved January 20, 2011, from Summary of the Clean Air Act 42 U.S.C. §7401 et seq. (1970): http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/caa.html
The perhaps surprising answer is that in the U.S. policy process, climate change is not now a scientific issue. Although much of the controversy appears to revolve around scientific principles, political and economic forces actually dominate. In a sense, this is not surprising: in dealing with possible climate change, policymakers, stakeholders, and the public have to confront competing economic interests, significant political change, and such difficult issues as intergenerational equity, international competition, national sovereignty, and the role (and competence) of international institutions. What are the primary factors that determine policy outcomes on this complex subject? Detailing them vividly demonstrates how scientific knowledge interacts with the formulation of policy on a significant issue in the United States.
The climate crisis of the 21st century seems to be all about climate change and or global warming. Many people think the most of the manmade climate is being caused by the world’s largest companies that use the most power, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests. The companies range from investor owned firms, household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP to state owned and government ran companies. The analysis say that, which has been welcomed by the former Vice President Al Gore as a "crucial step forward" found that most of the majority of the companies were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal. (Kenny)
“FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] essentially means you have no right, as a parent, to know what or how your children are doing in school.” Michele Willens says this in her article, “College Students Have Too Much Privacy” about the FERPA act that was passed in 1974. It was originally put in place to protect the privacy of students, but it also keeps information private from the student’s parents, or current gauardians. Because so many parents waste money on college students that might miss classes or even drop out without them knowing, the FERPA act needs to be reformed.
...n, reserving them the right to shut down a facility or issue a fine if the company refuses to adhere to the regulations of the act. By the 1990s, the act was amended to ensure legal procedures to reduce the chances of acid rain. When Congress first started the Clean Air Act, it was what began the environmental movement, and is now considered one of the landmark pieces of legislation.
Congress enacted legislation now known as the Clean Water Act. During the Truman era, originally called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The bill Congress passed in 1972 was an overhaul of the original act. The Clean Water Act set limits on the amount of pollutants industries and cities could discharge and gave the Environmental Protection Agency the power to sue and penalize polluters that exceeded those limits. Congress banned DDT, reduced emissions and sued major cities.
The purpose of this paper is to review the Department of Energy's (DOE) programs and recommend future directions for US policy to address President Obama's desire to save our planet from climate change and reduce reliance on oil (Roberts, Lassiter, & Nanda, 2010, p 4). The context of this review is following the 2008 election of President Obama and the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) in February 2009. This paper will evaluate the effectiveness of the measures implemented by the Act and compare their effectiveness with an alternative strategy of implementing a carbon tax, then make a recommendation on which strategy would have achieved the President's aims in view of the political, economic and environmental situation that he faced.
There was a concern that industries would not be able to perform as well or meet the requirements demanded by Congress. The fear that the economy would suffer under strict environmental regulations never came to be. Since the introduction of the Clean Air Act of 1970, “aggregate emissions of common air pollutants dropped 68 percent, while the U.S. gross domestic product grew 212 percent. Total private sector jobs increased by 88 percent during the same period” (Clean Air Act and Economy). There is a cornucopia of reasons as to why the U.S. has benefitted from the Clean Air Act: environmental costs are a small percentage of industry revenues, cleaner technologies have made the U.S. a global market leader, more people can work because they are healthier, less money spent on illness, increase in employment and increased revenues… (Clean Air Act and Economy). It is clear that strict pollution laws do not harm the
The Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970, which established nationwide standards for air quality, is one such “unfounded mandate.” Although it is a federal law, states must pay the cost of implementation and enforcement.
Our Congress created the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 in order to establish an environmental foundation for mankind. This policy endorses harmony between humans and the vast ecosystems surrounding them. To obtain this goal and provide our future with resources as well, NEPA is separated into two titles. The first title declares the policy in detail while the second title focuses on the Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ oversees the effectiveness of current methods, the reactions of the environment to those methods, and implements revisions as necessary.
Air pollution has become very costly environmental problem in terms of both human lives and in terms of billions of dollars lost for health-care expenditure and crop damage.