Air pollution is a problem for all Americans. The average adult breathes over 3,000 gallons of air on a daily basis (Spellman, 1999). Children breathe even more air per pound of body weight and are more susceptible to air pollution. Air pollution threatens the health of human beings and all other living things on Earth. Even though we cannot see all of them, pollutants in the air create smog and acid rain, cause cancer or other serious health effects, diminish the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, and contribute to the potential for global climate change. For this reason, it is important to have air pollution laws, which are strict and enforceable. This paper will describe existing air pollution laws in the United States.
             The Clean Air Act, initially enacted in 1963 and significantly amended in 1970 and 1990, is the primary federal law under which the EPA operates (Rothbard, 1990). The Clean Air Act was the first comprehensive environmental law. Due to the 1990 Clean Air Act, the role of the state and federal
             governments is stronger than it has been in the past. While the 1990 Clean Air Act is a federal law covering the entire United States, the states actually carry out the act. For example, a state air pollution agency holds a hearing on a permit application by a power plant or penalizes a company for violation of air pollution limits. Under this law, the Environmental Protection Agency PA limits exactly how much of a pollutant can be in the air anywhere in the country. By doing this, all Americans are granted the same basic health and environmental protections. The law enables individual states to have stronger pollution controls, but states are not allowed to have weaker pollution controls than the minimum federal requirement.
             Each state must develop state implementation plans (SIPs) that describe how each state will do its job under the Clean Air Act. A state implementation plan consists of a collection of th...