Clean Air Act
42 U.S.C. s/s 7401
et seq. (1970)
The Clean Air Act is the
comprehensive Federal law that regulates air emissions from area, stationary,
and mobile sources. This law authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect
public health and the environment.
The goal of the Act was to set and
achieve NAAQS in every state by 1975. The setting of maximum pollutant
standards was coupled with directing the states to develop state implementation
plans (SIP's) applicable to appropriate industrial sources in the state.
The Act was amended in 1977 primarily to set new
goals (dates) for achieving attainment of NAAQS since many areas of the country
had failed to meet the deadlines. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act in
large part were intended to meet unaddressed or insufficiently addressed
problems such as acid rain, ground-level ozone, stratospheric ozone depletion,
and air toxics.
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