Drawing Boundaries for Air Quality Control Under the Clean Air Act: The Importance of NOT Being Nonattainment

Authors

  • William V. Luneburg University of Pittsburgh School of Law

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pjephl.2007.2

Abstract

Much has changed with regard to air pollution control since 1970 whenCongress revised the Clean Air Act to assume a form that, in very broad terms,it retains today.  From a legal point of view, while states1 still retained at thattime wide-ranging discretion to design the regulatory controls necessary toattain the air quality goals of the Act, that discretion was significantly limitedwhen Congress revisited the Act in 1977.  State discretion diminished to aneven greater extent, particularly with regard to the air pollutants ozone, carbonmonoxide, and particulate matter, when President George H.W. Bush signedthe Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

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Published

2007-04-15