The Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act passed in 1963 asserts that the Environmental Protection Agency must “update air quality standards every five years, to ensure standards "protect public health with an adequate margin of safety" based on the latest scientific evidence.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency Commissioner Gina McCarthy  the current proposal,  “would lower the current standard of 75 parts per billion (the concentration of ozone pollution in the air we breathe) to a standard in the range of 65-70 parts per billion, while taking public comment on a level as low as 60.”

Of all the standards we studied in this course, relatively few standards had a clause to update the requirements every five years. Especially standards that apply to so many industries including energy, manufacturing, automotive, etc. An aggressive across the board standard like the one regulating air quality standards push industries to innovate and reevaluate their practices. As we have also seen in class the more aggressive the standard is, the more noticeable the change or influence of the standard is after the fact.

Hopefully with this updated air quality standard we will see significant changes. Air quality effects the health of millions of Americans in ways many of us are unaware of. From asthma to drowsiness, even possibly cancer, these are all potential symptoms of dangerously high air quality levels. Commissioner McCarthy describes the economic effects related to these potential health hazards:  “Missing work, feeling ill, or caring for a sick child costs us time, money, and personal hardship. When family health issues hurt us financially, that drags down the whole economy. The good news is that if these proposed standards were finalized, every dollar we would invest to meet them would return up to $3 in health benefits (totaling up to $38 billion in 2025, and going up from there).For our children, that means avoiding up to 1 million missed school days, thousands of cases of acute bronchitis, and nearly a million asthma attacks. Adults could avoid hundreds of emergency room visits for cardiovascular reasons, up to 180,000 missed work days, and 4 million days where people have to deal with pollution-related symptoms.”

I hope that the EPA continues to implement aggressive environmental standards across the board and that eventually the United States can become a leader in sustainable and clean energy. The economic and health hazards of high ozone pollution effects every individual and corporation around the world. By setting this standard, the Environmental Protection Agency is also pushing corporations to become more efficient and innovative with their energy consumption and emissions. Throughout this course we have also seen the powerful effects of standards including safety improvements and innovative changes. I believe that if the Environment Protection Agency continues to implement and enforce these aggressive standards we will see some great changes including safety improvements for the masses and energy efficiency advances.