Air pollution regulations get tougher
After several years in which industrial air pollution was virtually a non-issue in Washington, reports The New York Times, Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the states are cracking down. The Senate is discussing a bill that would force EPA to identify and regulate 50 hazardous air pollutants over the next three years. In July, EPA issued a ruling about microscopic dust in the air - one that it had been contemplating for over 10 years. In 1970, the Clean Air Act gave EPA authority to establish limits on the amount of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and other criteria pollutants - such as those generated from automobiles, coal burning, steel making. Once EPA set a rule for a pollutant, it required states to provide State Implementation Plans to show how they would attain acceptable concentrations of that pollutant. But for much of this decade, says the Times, the EPA has been beset by upheaval. It quotes an EPA regulator who agrees: we were beset with intra-agency politics, and we just stopped requiring states to provide attainment demonstration. Since we have not pressured the states, the states have not pressured industry.
- OSTI ID:
- 5876263
- Journal Information:
- BioCycle; (USA), Vol. 28:10; ISSN 0276-5055
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Ethanol battle heats up over EPA rule, tax credit
EPA rule expands state role in regulating air toxins
Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
REGULATIONS
CLEAN AIR ACT
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
STATE GOVERNMENT
US EPA
CONTROL
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LAWS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION LAWS
US ORGANIZATIONS
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
290300 - Energy Planning & Policy- Environment
Health
& Safety