Clean Air Act

This act was originally created to control the air pollution in the United States of America. It was first passed in 1963, but amendments were added in the years 1965, 1970, 1977, and 1990.

The Act was proposed to offer federal research aid and to urge the states to create agencies to assist in the stopping of pollution issues.

Amendments

• In the year 1965 the first amendment to the bill made it to require that the US Department of Health and Education Services create and enforce auto emissions.
• The 1970 amendment to the act was what put the power of this bill into the control of the Federal Government. It was still a basis for air pollution, but four major additions were added to the bill. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards was created to put an end to chemicals that were bad for the population as well as the environment. The different chemicals were to be determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They were also to establish New Source Performance Standards to figure out how much pollution should be allowed by different industries in different areas. The states were also to develop plans to help achieve the goals of this act and then the plans were to be approved by the EPA. The states were also told that they had to follow the Clean Air Act.
• In 1977 another amendment was added to deal with the states that had not helped to enforce the auto emissions and to improve the air quality.
• The last amendment was added in 1990 to address the topics of acid rain, toxic pollutants, areas that were still not up to code and depletion of the ozone layer. The gas emissions were to be regulated even more, to help control acid rain. The three major chemicals that were depleting the ozone layer were phased out and are no longer used.

--Teresa Garrison 07:14, 5 October 2007 (PDT)