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A Clean Air Act describes one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of smog
Smog

Smog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide....
 and air pollution
Air pollution

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment, into the Earth's atmosphere....
 in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans.






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A Clean Air Act describes one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of smog
Smog

Smog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide....
 and air pollution
Air pollution

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment, into the Earth's atmosphere....
 in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans. Critics argue it has also sapped corporate profits and contributed to outsourcing
Outsourcing

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering firm or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the core competence of a particular business, or to make more efficient...
, while defenders counter that improved environmental air quality has generated more jobs than it has eliminated.

Additionally, air quality legislation has led to widespread use of atmospheric dispersion models, including point source
Air pollution dispersion terminology

Air pollution dispersion terminology describes the words and technical terms that have a special meaning to those who work in the field of air pollution dispersion modeling....
 models, roadway air dispersion models and aircraft air pollution models in order to analyze air quality impacts of proposed major actions.

Clean Air Acts


Canada

There have been two acts proposed by the Canadian federal government with the name "Clean Air Act". The first, passed in the 1970s, sought to regulate the release of four specific air pollutants: asbestos, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride. It has since been replaced by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in the year 2000.

Former Canadian
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 Environment Minister
Minister of the Environment (Canada)

The Minister of the Environment is the Minister of the Crown in the Cabinet of Canada who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's environment department, Environment Canada....
 Rona Ambrose
Rona Ambrose

Ronalee "Rona" Ambrose, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Member of the Canadian House of Commons is the Minister of Labour, as well as the Vice-Chair of the Treasury Board Cabinet committee....
 introduced the second Clean Air Act in mid-October 2006, containing mostly measures to fight smog pollution and greenhouse
Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a building where plants are cultivated.A greenhouse is a structure with a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming solar radiation from the sun warms plants, soil, and other things inside the building....
 emissions.. On October 19, 2006, Ambrose revealed details of the plan which would include reducing the greenhouse emissions levels of 2003 by about 45 to 65% for the year 2050. There are plans for regulations on vehicle fuel consumption for 2011 and targets for ozone
Ozone

Ozone or trioxygen is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic O2....
 and smog levels for 2025. The effectiveness of this act has been challenged by the opposition parties, with Jack Layton
Jack Layton

John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Member of the Canadian House of Commons is a Social democracy Canadian politician and since 2003 has been leader of Canada's New Democratic Party....
 of the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party is a political party in Canada with a progressivism social democracy philosophy that contests elections at both the federal and provincial levels....
 stating that the act does little to prevent climate change and that more must be done. After threatening to make this into an election issue the Conservative Party agreed to rework the act with the opposition parties.

United Kingdom

In response to the Great Smog of 1952
Great Smog of 1952

The Great Smog, also referred to as the Big Smoke, befell London from 5 December to 9 December, 1952, and formed an important impetus to the modern environmentalism movement....
, the British Parliament introduced the Clean Air Act 1956
Clean Air Act 1956

The Clean Air Act 1956 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which responded to London's Great Smog of 1952. It was in effect from 1955-1964 and sponsored by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in England and the Department of Health for Scotland....
. This act legislated for zones where smokeless fuel
Smokeless fuel

Smokeless fuel means fuel which does not produce visible smoke when burned. The term is usually applied to solid fuels, such as:* Anthracite...
s had to be burnt and relocated power stations to rural areas. The Clean Air Act 1968 introduced the use of tall chimneys to disperse air pollution
Atmospheric dispersion modeling

Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the computer simulation of how Air pollution disperse in the ambient Earth's atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that solve the mathematical equations and algorithms which simulate the pollutant dispersion....
 for industries burning coal, liquid or gaseous fuels.

United States

The United States federal government has enacted a series of clean air acts, beginning with the Air Pollution Control Act
Air Pollution Control Act

The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 was the first United States Clean Air Act enacted by United States Congress to address the national Environmental hazard of air pollution....
 of 1955, and followed by the Clean Air Act of 1963, the Air Quality Act of 1967, the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970
Clean Air Act (1970)

The Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 is a United States federal law that requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to air pollution that are known to be hazardous to human health....
, and Clean Air Act Amendments in 1977 and 1990. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation, either implementing federal programs or filling in locally important gaps in federal programs.

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 proposed emissions trading
Emissions trading

Emissions trading is an administration approach used to control pollution by providing economics incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
, added provisions for addressing acid rain
Acid rain

Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation that is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure....
, ozone depletion
Ozone depletion

Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth stratosphere since the late 1970s, and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions during the same period....
 and toxic air pollution, and established a national permits program. The amendments once approved also established new auto gasoline reformulation requirements, set Reid Vapor Pressure
Reid Vapor Pressure

Reid vapor pressure is a common measure of the Gasoline#Volatility. It is defined as theabsolute vapor pressure exerted by a liquid at 100 ?F as determined by the test method ASTM-D-323....
 (RVP) standards to control evaporative emissions from gasoline and mandated that the new gasoline formulations be sold from May-September in many states.

In May 2007, President Bush issued an executive order to cut greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, spurred by a Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 ruling that the United States Environmental Protection Agency? must base its previous decisions to not regulate greenhouse gases on the Clean Air Act or regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The President proposed the 20-in-10 bill
Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a legislature that has not been ratification, adopted, or received royal assent. Once a bill has become law, it is thereafter an Statute; but in popular usage the two terms are often treated interchangeably....
, a goal to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next ten years.

Bush sent the Congress a proposal that would meet it in two steps:
  • Firstly to set a mandatory fuel standard, requiring 35 billion gallons of renewable and other alternative fuels by 2017. This amounts to nearly five times the target previously set for 2012, and was intended to displace 15 percent of projected annual gasoline use in the United States.
  • Secondly, to continue the efforts to increase fuel efficiency by reforming and modernizing Corporate Average Fuel Economy
    Corporate Average Fuel Economy

    The Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations in the United States, first enacted by Congress in 1975, are federal regulations intended to improve the average Fuel economy in automobiles of automobile and light trucks sold in the US in the wake of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo....
     (CAFE) Standards for cars, and extending the current Light Truck Rule, with the intention of reducing projected annual gasoline use in the United States by up to 8.5 billion gallons by 2017. This would bring a further 5 percent reduction that, in combination with increasing the supply of renewable and other alternative fuels, would bring the total reduction in projected annual gasoline use to 20 percent.

See also

  • Chemetco
    Chemetco

    Chemetco was formerly one of the largest United States refiners of copper from recycled or residual sources.Its maximum output of 120,000 tonnes per annum was approximately half of the entire U.S....
  • Emission standards


External links

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