The Economics Of The Clean Air Act

"The health effects of air pollution imperil human lives. This fact is well-documented."

-- Eddie Bernice Johnson

Air is a part of all of our lives. Without clean air, nothing we know of can

exist. The debate over clean air, it's regulations, their teammates and

opposition, and the economic factors coming into play into this ever-more

recognizable problem is a widespread and ever more controversial one. Like a

long countdown to eventual disaster, the pollution effecting our world has no

doubt made increasingly more impact on our daily lives, and has increased the

intensity on Washington and other countries to solve the problem. The Clean Air

act is a step in the right direction, but with every answer there comes two

questions and likewise more and more people taking sides. There have been long

debates not over the effectiveness of such regulations, but the lack of

opportunity such regulations and deregulations provide for other companies.

Global warming has increased the tension over the economics of cleaner air, but

with little the government can do to limit the use of cars, the production of

necessary coal-fired power plants and other such human resources, the topic just

turns into another fog for debate and argument over stricter regulations and the

impeached right these sources have to operate. The continual power struggle of

such economic and social issues and the debate over the effectiveness of

stricter, present or more lenient regulations has turned into a smorgasboard of

prectical solutions, with opponents quickly changing minds and becoming

supporters and vice-versa.

The expenditure of about 20 billion on the part of companies since 1990 to

clean up such hazardous pollutants as cars, factories, and thousands of other

measures have reaped about 400 billion in saved hospital costs, lost workdays,

reduced productivity, and other conditions while at the same time theoretically

helping to reduce smog and pollution. The findings of a report on experiments

done for the Clean Air act was passed into law in 1970. The Enviornmental

Protection Agency has recently come under attack by critics however, and

Washington has threatened to cut the agencies' budget citing high costs of

enviornmental legislation, even while their is solid proof that the agencies'

measures are paying off. Congress is skeptical of reports that the wh...

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...economic,

political, and diplomatic challenges. Many developing nations such as China are

dependent on coal-generated power to drive their economic growth over the next

several decades. U.S. utilities uses coal to produce more than half of the

nation's electricity. Plentiful U.S. coal supplies have also meant power for

many U.S. companies where coal is plentiful.

Air and water are concrete parts of all of our lives. With the destruction

and continual pollution being pumped into our ecosystem, who knows how long it

will be before the whole world is contaminated to the point where we can no

longer live in it. The bureaucrats in Washington don't have all the answers,

neither do the unions, or the big corporations. The idea and impact of

pollution is like a time-bomb waiting to explode, and the end draws nearer and

nearer. We cannot look back on our world after we have destroyed it and comment

on things we should have done differently.

Sources Consulted

http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act

http://www.cleanairtrust.org/cleanairact.html

http://www.cleanairtrust.org/nepa2cercla.html

http://www.c2es.org/federal/courts/clean-air-act-cases