Meadows, D. (1997). Places to Intervene in a System. Whole Earth, 91(1), 78-84.
On P7, it reads:
"In 1986 the US government required that every factory releasing hazardous air pollutants report those emissions publicly. Suddenly everyone could find out precisely what was coming out of the smokestacks in town. There was no law against those emissions, no fines, no determination of "safe" levels, just information. But by 1990 emissions dropped 40 percent. One chemical company that found itself on the Top Ten Polluters list reduced its emissions by 90 percent, just to "get off that list."
This is an exciting story, and I am thinking of using this example to illustrate the effectiveness of information policy instruments in my Environmental Policy course teaching. However, I am wondering, the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1970, and by 1986, there was still no law against emission? No fines? No determination of safe level in the US?
Who can provide a quick answer so that I do not have to dive into the legal documents?
As a quick answer, I'd be curious to see what the author is citing with regards to that passage since 1990 was when a lot of the major CAA amendments were passed, but the NAAQS dates back to the 1970 CAA which allowed the EPA to promulgate standards for air pollutants based upon standards intended to protect public health and with a reasonable margin of safety. That seems to be a point against the "no law against emissions" and "no determination of 'safe' levels". I'd have to go back and read some of my notes with regards to fines since they are authorized, but they are context specific and I can't remember the timelines for when they were authorized by statute off hand.
The Congressional Research Service actually has a good write up about this: "Clean Air Act: A Summary of the Act and Its Major Requirements" (2022), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30853
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience
- Cartography
- Mapping