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A Clean Air Act for Israel

Lessons from the US Clean Air Act

Joel Schwartz Professor of Environmental Health Harvard School of Public Health

Goal of the Clean Air Act

Protect Public Health with an Adequate Margin of Safety

Did it Work?

Effect of PM2.5 Dockery et al, 1993

30

% Increase in Mortality

25 20 15 10 5 0 10 15 20 25 30 PM2.5 (ug/m3)

Harvard School of Public Health

Relative Risk of Death in Six US Cities during Two Follow-up Periods

1.4

1.3

S H L

1.2

Rate Ratio

1.1

T
1

WH

T P
0.9

P L

0.8

0.7 0 5 10 15 PM2.5 /m
3

20

25

30

35

What does the Clean Air Act do?

Sets Uniform Standards for all Pollution Sources of a Given Type (e.g. Coal Burning Powerplants, Diesel Powered Cars, etc No negotiations, takes off pressure Sets Scientific Method for Setting Air Quality Standards Provides Mechanism for getting from Standards to Emissions Limits Provides Effective Enforcement Method

What Worked?
Citizens Suit Provision
Any person or group can sue to enforce the provisions of the Clean Air Act Any Company Violating Emissions Limits can be taken to Court Court authorized to Order Compliance Violation of Court Order is Contempt of Court, Company President goes to Jail

Recently
Large Fraction of Israeli Factories were Found to be Violating their Emission Standards If Citizens Groups could force Compliance in Court, this would not have happened, would be resolved faster

In Addition
Any person or Citizens Group can sue the US Environmental Protection Agency if it Fails to do Something Required under the Clean Air Act
Example: EPA failed to require states in the middle of the US to reduce emissions of NOx, which was causing Ozone formation in the East Coast New York and Massachusetts sued, and Forced EPA to do so

Why is this Necessary

Protects Citizens from the Effects of Undue Political Influence Protects Politicians from the Effects of Undue Political Influence
Administration could tell Midwestern States they were forced to control their coal burning power plants

What Else Worked

Requirement for Scientific Review before setting Standards Open review, with Public Comment Must be reviewed by Panel of Outside Scientists Must respond to all Substantive Comments Then can set standards

Example
Outside Panel just told EPA to tighten the standard for Particles in the Air
Not what the Bush Administration wanted to hear

Panel said too early to conclude Diesel Exhaust Causes Cancer Science sets basic standards of acceptable air quality

Implementation
Government must figure out what limits on Emissions from various sources (cars, powerplants, factories, refineries, etc) are necessary to meet the Air Standards Must Issue Emission Limits that can be show to Achieve the Standards

What Could be Improved?

All or Nothing
Scientific Consensus takes a Long time Perhaps control a little when suggestive evidence? Meeting Vs Failing the Standard

 Non-Attainment Areas
If Air Quality Worse than Standard must take Action to Improve it

Attainment Areas
No Action Necessary

If there are no Thresholds, there may be some things worth doing in Attainment Areas

Example
New York violates the standard for Soot in the Air
They are replacing some Diesel buses with Natural Gas buses, some with hybrid buses, and retrofitting Particles Filters on Diesel buses

Boston Meets the Standard, does nothing

But retrofitting Particle Filters is Cheap

Grandfathering Provision
Tighter Standard for New Plants
Lack of Retrofit requirement led Powerplants to have their life extended, with little controls Coal burning powerplants grandfathered in 1970 rebuilt, expanded and still operating

One plant puts out more than 200,000 tons of SO2 per year One large US Utility averages more than 3 times as much SO2 per MWH of generated electricity as another large Utility

Too Expensive
Recent study showed little impact on capital investment in industry US has tighter standards than Europe, has grown faster Cost Benefit Analysis of Clean Air Act found health benefits (in Dollars) were much larger than the costs

Bottom Line
Does not impede economic growth large net benefits One rule for all Self enforceable
IF NOT NOW, WHEN?