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Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act: Protecting Human Health and the Environment Since 1970 as the US Economy has Grown

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The Clean Air Act is one of most important laws for protecting public health and the environment in the United States. For more than 40 years, it has protected the air that we breathe while the American economy has grown. The substantial public health benefits of the Clean Air Act overwhelmingly outweigh the costs associated with achieving them.

In addition, there are employment benefits to cleaning the air. For example, making, installing, and maintaining pollution control equipment at industrial facilities supports or create jobs. Compliance spending has spurred innovation and has led to the creation of a pollution control industry that employs American workers and has tens of billions of dollars in exports.

Today, as in the past, the Clean Air Act continues to cut pollution and protect the health of American families and workers, while creating opportunities for innovation and new technologies.

The Clean Air Act Saves Lives and Strengthens the Workforce

  • According to a 1997 EPA Report to Congress, the first 20 years of Clean Air Act programs led to the prevention of 205,000 premature deaths, 843,000 asthma attacks, and 18 million child respiratory illnesses in the year 1990.
  • A March, 2011 peer reviewed EPA analysis shows that the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 prevented more than 160,000 premature deaths in 2010 and will prevent an estimated 230,000 deaths in 2020.  Businesses and the economy directly benefit from the prevention of 17 million work days lost in 2020.

Environmental Protection Is a Large and Growing Industry

  • The Department of Commerce reports (PDF) (42pp, 597k, About PDF) that United States is the world's largest producer and consumer of environmental protection technologies worldwide. In 2008, the global environmental protection technology market was approximately $782 billion. 
  • Air pollution control equipment alone generated revenues of $18 billion, including exports of more than $3 billion.  Environmental technology exports help the U.S. balance of trade, generating a $20 billion surplus in 2007.
  • In the United States, approximately 119,000 companies are engaged in the environmental technology business.  In 2008, the U.S. environmental protection technology industry generated approximately $300 billion in revenues, $43.8 billion in exports, and supported close to 1.7 million jobs.

Healthy Economy and Population

  • Economic data suggest that a healthy economy and population go hand in hand.  Between 1970 and 2009 total emissions of the six principal air pollutants fell by 63 percent, and private sector jobs and GDP grew by 86 percent and 204 percent respectively. 

Economic Growth and Emissions Reductions

Graph References

The Clean Air Act Supports U.S. Jobs

  • Environmental standards can have a net positive economic and employment impact (PDF) (44pp, 24.2 MB, About PDF) by spurring demand for pollution control investments and creating additional demand for workers.
  • A study by Resources for the Future (PDF) (42pp, 597k, About PDF) Exit EPA disclaimer examined how industries respond to environmental standards.  They found that on average, employment goes up in firms required to meet standards.
  • In addition to the increase in employment in the environmental protection industry, environmental standards also create employment in industries that provide intermediate goods to the environmental protection industry.  A capital expenditure to reduce air pollution involves the purchase of abatement equipment. The equipment manufacturers, in turn, order steel, tanks, vessels, blowers, pumps, and chemicals to manufacture and install the equipment.
  • The Institute of Clean Air Companies Exit EPA disclaimer found that the Clean Air Interstate Rule alone has resulted in 200,000 jobs (PDF) (8pp, 423k, About PDF) Exit EPA disclaimer over the past seven years due to the installation of control technologies at power plants.   

Environmental Costs are a Small Percentage of Revenues

  • A 2005 Census Bureau survey (PDF) (104pp, 4.7MB, About PDF) of industry determined that all pollution abatement expenditures, operating and capital totaled $26.6 billion while the firms shipped out goods valued at $4.74 trillion.  This means that all pollution controls, not just those related to clean air, were less than one percent of total revenue for manufacturing firms.  Air pollution control is responsible for less than half of these costs.

For more information about the benefits and costs of the Clean Air Act, visit http://www.epa.gov/cleanairactbenefits/

 

 

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