Clean Air Act and the Components and Prevention of Air Pollution - Essay Example

? please choose the topic from the instructions Contents 3 Introduction 3 Research Question 4 Research Limitations 4 Literature Review 4 Value of clean air 7 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 9 Abstract The research study will discuss about the Clean Air Act and the components and prevention of air pollution. The later part will talk about the benefits that clear air brings to the society. Introduction To control air pollution at the national level the Federal Law of the United States designed the Clean Air Act. The Agency for Environmental Protection (EPA) is assigned with the responsibility to enforce regulations that will act as a shield against the contaminants that can have hazardous effects on the society. The Clean Air Act is a first major law on environment. The law includes terms for the citizen suits of the United States. Similar legislation has been enacted by many state and local governments. The objective of the Clean Air Act of 1963 was to improve, strengthen and accelerate the programs aimed to prevent air pollution. The objective of the Clean Air act of 1970 was to amend the act for a more effective program that will improve the quality of air of the nation. The objectives were restated in 1990 to amend the act that will maintain the health of the society by meeting the standards of air quality. After a decade, the Congress finally amended the Clean Air Act in order to solve the problems of the past and deal with the emerging issues. The federal government held the states responsible for not attaining any program but it allowed them to set up the deadlines taking the severity of pollution into consideration. The standard of automobile emission was raised and a specific time table was designed to tighten the grip on the area. The government involved itself in encouraging the use of low sulphur fuels and other alternative sources that will reduce the emission of sulphur dioxide (Fleming and Knorr). Research Question What is the impact of the Clean Air Act on the society and need to value clean air? It is important to judge the results after the implementation of the act to find out the risks involved in pollution. It will provide an idea on the environment we are living in. The study will take into account various publications to judge the success of the act. Research Limitations The research is limited to some data sources which may not be accurate and particular effects of pollutants have not been summarized. Literature Review The aim of the Act is to provide clean air that is safe to breathe for all the residents of America. Protection of the public health is the main goal of the Act although the law also looks out to protect the environment from the pollution caused by air. The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States sets the national standard of air quality. The quality will protect the residents from the common pollutants like ozone, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide. It is the duty of the state governments to chalk out plans that will meet the standards within a particular period of time. The other major sources of pollution include automobiles, trucks and power plants. The EPA sets the national standards of pollution for these sources as well. In 1970, the provisions of the Clean Air Act were passed by the congress. In 1977 and 1990, the law was amended to extend the deadlines. The basic motto of the Act has remained intact while development of new strategies for air preventing air pollution is on progress. The act tested tremendous success. It has provided the society will cleaner air along with improvement in public health. There is 98 percent drop in the emissions of toxic lead and 35 percent drop in the emissions of sulphur dioxide. There is increase in driving by 127 percent but even then the carbon monoxide emissions have dropped by 32 percent. Even now the health of millions of Americans is at risk as many parts of the country are still involved in violating the law (Clean Air Trust). The first two decades after the implementation of the Act resulted in avoiding more than 2 lakhs early deaths in the sole year of 1990. The amendments of 1990 have provided major benefits. According to the NRDC’s analysis of data more than 2 million lives have been rescued in the period of 1990 to 2010. (Benefits and costs of Clean Air Act) It is forecasted that the Clean Air Act will prevent deaths of more than 2 lakh 30 thousand people in the year 2020. The effects of the Act reflect the success of the joint participation of different levels of government and private organizations with households and individuals. The combined efforts of the public and private are expected to meet the requirements of the 1990 amendments. It is expected to meet the 65 billion dollars level annually by the year 2020. (The benefits and costs of Clean Air Act: 1990 to 2020- Summary report) In spite of being costly, the efforts are likely to bring substantial improvements in air quality. The improvements will have significant impact on reducing the premature deaths and improving the economic welfare of the society. It is expected that the economic value of the improvements will reach almost 2 trillion dollars for the year 2020. The value will largely exceed the costs of the efforts applied to achieve the target level. If the potentially important benefits are taken into account because of uncertainties the probability of direct costs of exceeding the direct benefits is still very small. The data on investments that are directed on reducing particulate matters and exposures of ozone would have been more helpful as all EPA programs are not directed towards the same objective. So it can be concluded that the objectives on implementing the Clean Air Act have been successful in spite of the efforts being a bit costly. Value of clean air The variability of air quality can affect the willingness to pay for a house. The structure of the rent and prices will reflect the differentials. The quality of air is measured by annual average concentration ratio of six different types of pollutants. The pollutants include small particles, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, total hydro carbon and lead. The small particles and the sulphur dioxide come from fixed sources while the rest results from mobile sources. Most of the people are not concerned about the pollutants causing in air pollution. They are just concerned about the pollution. Therefore it is significant just to find out any of the pollution variables that is negatively significant and will indicate that people do not like dirty air in general Inclusion all the six pollutions can cause multi-collinearity problem. The precision of the estimates will get reduced. However there are concerns regarding the accuracy of air pollution data. The above figure shows the distribution of air pollution among the districts of a certain country. The concentration is higher in the darkened areas. The measurement error is unavoidable as pollution does not recognize the geographical boundaries. The level of pollution from a house may not be better than the pollution where it is located. To avoid this sort of problem a simple average of the level of pollution is calculated. This technique is analogous to moving average used for time series analysis. Seasonal adjustment will reduce the effect of measurement error (Yusuf and Resosudarmo, 7). Conclusion It can be concluded that the Clean Air Act is due to bring several benefits to the society not only in terms of air pollution but it will also help to restrict the use of natural resources by providing alternative methods of using the components that will emit low emissions. Works Cited Fleming J., and Knorr, B. “History of the Clean Air Act”. ametsoc.org. Web. 9th April, 2012. http://www.ametsoc.org/sloan/cleanair/cleanairlegisl.html. Clean Air Trust, “Working to achieve a strong and effective Clean Air Act”. cleanairtrust.org. Web. 9th April, 2012. http://www.cleanairtrust.org/cleanairact.html. United States Environment Protection Agency, “Benefits and costs of Clean Air Act”. epa.gov. Web. 9th April, 2012. http://www.epa.gov/oar/sect812/prospective2.html. United States Environment Protection Agency, “The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act: 1990 to 2020 – Summary Report”. epa.gov. 2010 Web. 9th April, 2012. http://www.epa.gov/air/sect812/aug10/summaryreport.pdf. Yusuf, A. and Resosudarmo, B. “Assessing the Value of Clean Air in a Developing Country: A Hedonic Price Analysis of the Jakarta Housing Market, Indonesia”. een.anu.edu.au. 2006. Web. 9th April, 2012. http://een.anu.edu.au/download_files/een0601.pdf. Read More