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Clean Air Act

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Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq. -- Enforced by US EPA --
By the end of this lecture you should be able to describe: * The race to laxity * What NAAQS means. * The federal government’s role in cooperative federalism * 7 criteria pollutants * A hazardous pollutant under the CAA * Non-attainment area * Emissions trading programs * Noise pollution under the CAA * The four Class I areas designated by the State of Florida * The four emissions regulated by Title II of the Clean Air Act relating to motorized vehicles * How long a waiver is good for and to how much of an auto manufacturer’s production does it apply to. * What city is the Title II pollution numbers based on. * What is a clean fuel vehicle.
LOOK for *** as pointers

NOTE Most of the narrative on the lectures in this course has been modified from: - Plater et al. Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law and Society, 1992. - Findley and Farber. Environmental Law, 2008.
Background
Air and water are common resources and are sometimes referred to by lay-people as “pollution sinks,” implying that airsheds and water bodies are large vats into which pollutants can be thrown as a large disposal. As we saw with the Clean Water Act, this isn’t true. While both airsheds and water bodies can handle some amount of pollution without significant degradation, airsheds and water bodies can’t handle uncontrolled amounts of pollution. That is, there is something to the statement that the "solution to pollution is dilution"; however, this is not a preferred approach to cleaning the environment.

In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments (referred to as the CAA or Clean Air Act). Before the 1970 CAA, Congress primarily focused on providing funds to defray

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