Clearing the air.(Science And Environment)

Steven Hayward, "Making Sense of 'New Source Review,'" AEI Environmental Policy Outlook, AEI, July 2003 (aei.org)

Since the Clean Air Act went into effect in the 1970s, America's air has become significantly cleaner. A variety of technical changes to the way the act works, however, have the Bush administration's critics in the environmental movement up in arms.

When the EPA first implemented the Clean Mr Act, existing facilities, even very heavily polluting ones, did not have to meet the more stringent standards Congress imposed. New facilities that might pollute the air, however, had to undergo a stringent New Source Review intended to insure that they are clean enough. Under the Act's language, heavy modifications to an existing facility can make it "new" and subject to stricter regulation. This state of affairs lead to some odd outcomes: Many companies became afraid of investing in new technology, and some even paid penalties for installing cleaner technology because the new technology wasn't, under the act, clean enough.

Realizing the problems implicit in the act, the Clinton administration proposed a variety of changes in 1996 that the Bush administration also supports. Among other things, the Clintonites proposed making it easier for high-tech plants ...