The Clean Air Act (CAA) was introduced by the federal government to control air pollution throughout the United States and is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the CAA pertains the keeping the air clean for public health and the environment, the economic implications of the act are numerous. Some of the economic benefits connected to the act are increased public health, improved agricultural yields and reducing the greenhouse effect. In the Second Prospective Study done in March 2011 by the EPA to determine the true cost and benefits of the CAA, it was determined that the benefits exceed the costs at a factor of thirty to one, with overall benefits at $2 trillion and costs at $65 billion (EPA 2015). The CAA is proving to be a very successful environmental law.
The CAA monitors, regulates, controls and enforces compliance with the act of various companies, states and institutions so that air pollution is controlled. The CAA was the Air Quality Act of 1967 that was first amended in 1970 and again in 1990 (EPA 2015). The Air Quality Act was amended in response to the Earth Day demonstrations of 1970, when congress wanted to appease the movements by putting controls on air pollution and did so quickly, aiming primarily at visible smog in cities (EPA 2015). The Act was again amended in 1977 and 1990, with the 1990 amendments being a great step forward of the act.
The main provisions of the Act are to control common pollutants, hazardous, and toxic pollutants and air emissions. The 1990 amendments addressed four pressing issues to human and environmental health that were acid rain, toxic emissions, ozone depletion and urban air pollution (EPA 2015). Also established were greater enforcement and compliance with regulations in the Act and a national operating permits program.
Since the introduction of the 1990 amendments to the CAA, the economic value has proven to be substantial with a high benefits to cost ratio. Even though the annual costs of the CAA seem high, the economic benefit is that much more. One major economic benefit of the CAA is the direct impact on public human health. Having increased human health allows for people to be more productive members of society, they will have less sick days at work and will put less pressure on the health care system. When people are healthier, they are happier and put more money into the economy through spending and their brains have the power to be more innovative. These effects spill into increased economic growth and welfare. The cost benefit analysis provided by the EPA in 2011 shows that the CAA is a very important law that improves public and environmental health beyond what anyone projected. Not only does the Act improve public health, the enforcement, monitoring and controlling of the Act creates many new jobs that were not there prior to the Act.
The market-based regulations are built into the Act to allow for flexibility in accountability, meaning that one company can purchase, or trade, emissions credits from another to balance out emissions to keep them within the regulations. One company may emit less than the regulations allow, so that another company that over emits can purchase the credits to even the emissions and keep the market balanced.
The CAA has certainly improved the environmental situation along with all the human benefits. Without the Act the United States would continue to have elevated levels of acid rain, ozone depletion, air pollution and toxic emissions. However, there is still work to be done because the allowance of emission credit trading does not reduce the air pollution, it tends to keep it at a constant rate. To truly reduce air pollution, each emitter should be accountable for all their emissions and should not be able to purchase credits from under-emitters. The regulation should be that everyone is to reduce their emissions. The cost benefit analysis shows there is great room for additional costs while maintaining the benefits of the CAA, and the increased costs could potential further raise the associated benefits.
Works Cited
EPA Office of Air and Radiation . (2011, March). The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990 to 2020: Summary Report (Rep.). Retrieved February 9, 2016, from EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-07/documents/summaryreport.pdf
EPA. (2015, November 17). Overview of the Clean Air Act and Air Pollution. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview
