Clean Air Acts 1955-1990

• Allocated $5 million in government funds annually to research the negative effects of air pollution on public health.

• Did little to effectively limit air pollution, but officially acknowledged it as a potential danger and authorized Congress to respond to and control the problem.

• Sought to reduce air pollution from power plants, mills, and other stationary sources.
• Allocated $95 million over a three year period to air pollution agencies as well as state and local governments for the purpose of conducting research and supporting control efforts.
• Acknowledges motor vehicle exhaust as being hazardous to human health.
• Orders government-mandated research, investigations, surveys, and experiments in interstate pollution from the use of high sulphur coal and oil.

• Amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1963.
• Recognized the transient nature of air pollution and its effects on trans-border communities.
• Set emissions standards for automobiles, the first ever at the federal level (for 1968 automobile models, based on 1963 emissions levels).

• Additional amendments to the original Clean Air Act of 1963.
• Divided United States into 247 Air Quality Control Regions (AQCRs) as a means to organize, analyze, implement, and enforce environmental policy.
• Set first national emissions standards for stationary sources, as well as timelines and recommendations for State Implementation Plans (SIPs).

• Allowed citizens the right to take legal action in matters pertaining to environmental affairs and/or emissions standards.
• Established mandatory “New Source Performance Standards” (NSPS) for emissions levels on newly constructed power plants, additions to power plants, etc.
• Set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health.
• Extremely significant in that, for the first time on a legislative level, standards set on six various types of pollutants; sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead.

Last update

9/3/2010