Cleaner Air Has Little To Do With Clean Air Act
New book finds economic growth, local governments were already cleaning up environment

Economic growth and technological change, not expanded federal regulations, are primarily responsible for the safer, cleaner air we now breathe, according to Clearing the Air: The Real Story of the War on Air Pollution, a book published by the Cato Institute. The book provides a comprehensive examination of American air quality through data never before compiled in one place.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the federal Clean Air Act of 1970 is not primarily responsible for today's cleaner air, according to author Indur Goklany. Instead, state and other local efforts to clean up the air were well under way before the 1970 federal law was passed, his data prove.

The Clean Air Act and its subsequent amendments were passed in the belief that state and local governments had failed to protect the air because of a "race to the bottom"-a battle between the states, in the pursuit of economic growth, to allow lax environmental regulations. But municipal and state clean air programs existed prior to the Clean Air Act, and many emissions standards were tightened in a "race to the top," as states tried to meet their citizens' desires for a more livable environment. Most important, air quality was getting rapidly cleaner before 1970, according to the EPA's own data. There is no reason to think that this positive movement would have stopped in 1970 without federal intervention, nor is there reason to believe that continued improvement is attributable solely to the added federal rules, Goklany writes.

In the early stages of development in any society, its members work to acquire basic amenities like food, shelter, and health, and to live longer lives. On the way to these successes, a society may initially neglect the environment, but such neglect cannot last if its quality of life is to further improve. Thus, environmental cleanup becomes a priority. It is, therefore, in the interest of each state to keep its air clean, and each will do so without federal prodding or micromanagement, Goklany argues.

To ensure that further improvements in environmental quality and quality of life go hand in hand, environmental requirements have to be fine-tuned to each state's special circumstance, something one-size-fits-all federal regulations cannot achieve, he writes. Emissions trading should be expanded to allow trades between old and new sources. Control of interstate pollution should be negotiated between affected states, with the federal government stepping back into an equal role with the states. Under such a federalist approach, the federal government would set idealized goals, and states would determine their own policies for pollutants affecting their jurisdictions, Goklany writes.

"Indur Goklany has the audacity to question the premise upon which the federal EPA has built its ever-growing power-that states and cities would fail to control pollution if not under Washington's thumb, " said David Schoenbrod, cofounder, Natural Resources Defense Council. "By unearthing fascinating records from the first 70 years of this century and bringing them to life, he shows convincingly that America was cleaning up its environment just as fast before EPA came along as afterwards. By taking a cool look at the facts, Goklany reveals the environmental emperor to be wearing hardly a stitch of clothing. "

Clearing the Air: The Real Story of the War on Air Pollution