The Economics Of The Clean Air Act Essay -- Impact of Clean Air Act on

"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... ...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