HISTORY OF THE LEGISLATION The development of P.L. 89-272 dates almost from the adoption of the Clean Air Act of 1963. In December 1963, the Special Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, under the chairmanship of Senator Muskie of Maine, announced plans to conduct a series of field hearings in order to gather first-hand information on air pollution problems. During 1964, hearings were conducted in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Tampa. Further hearings were held in Washington on several specific aspects of the total air pollution problem, including automotive air pollution and solid waste disposal. The Subcommittee report to the full Committee on Public Works in October 1964 recommended enactment of legislation regulating emissions from gasoline-powered motor vehicles (and subsequently from diesel-powered vehicles), the initiation of a program of Federal grants-in-aid to assist cities in the handling of solid wastes, and the creation of a new Federal air pollution control laboratory. Legislation based on these recommendations was introduced by Senator Muskie in January 1965, and the Subcommittee held hearings on the bill in Washington and in Detroit during April. Representatives of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare testified in support of the Muskie Bill, but suggested a number of changes to improve and strengthen it. The bill, incorporating certain of the recommended changes, passed the Senate in May and was referred to the Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, under the chairmanship of Representative Oren Harris of Arkansas. During the public hearings on the bill, held in June, Department spokesmen reiterated their strong support for the Senate bill (S. 306), again suggesting modifications. On August 31, the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported to the House a bill which closely paralleled S. 306. This bill was approved overwhelmingly by the House on September 24, and on October 1 the Senate, on Senator Muskie's recommendation, accepted the version of the bill approved by the House. One of the most significant points brought out in both House and Senate hearings on S.306 was made in testimony presented by officials of the automotive industry. These witnesses announced that, if required by Federal law, they would be able to equip all automobiles with exhaust pollution control systems beginning with the 1968 model year. Although the Clean Air Act Amendments do not set a specific date by which time Federal standards on motor vehicle emissions are to become effective, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has notified Senator Muskie that emission standards will be made applicable to gasoline-powered vehicles and engines by the 1968 model year (Fall of 1967). The Department indicated that standards for diesel-powered engines and vehicles will not be promulgated until specialized control technology is sufficiently developed. Within the next two years, the Nation will begin to reap the benefit of control over the hazardous emissions from automobiles which more than twenty years ago began to create today's smog problem. THE CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS Control of Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles The provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments dealing with the motor vehicle are designed to achieve uniform national control by limiting the emission from all new motor vehicles introduced into interstate commerce, whether manufactured in the United States or imported from abroad. Because motor vehicles are a ubiquitous source of air pollution, moving freely from city to city and from coast to coast, anything less than nationally uniform control would fall short of the need. The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare is authorized to establish standards for the emission of any substance which in his judgment is, or may be, injurious to the public health or welfare. Once the Secretary has promulgated such standards, it will be unlawful to introduce a new motor vehicle or new motor vehicle engine into interstate commerce which fails to comply with the standards announced by the Secretary or to render inoperative a control device on a new motor vehicle or engine before delivery to the ultimate purchaser. Such acts are punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 for each offense. Vehicle and engine manufacturers are required under the legislation to maintain and make available to the Secretary records sufficient to enable him to determine that the manufacturer is complying with the law. Failure to keep such records or to make them available on request is also prohibited and punishable by up to a $1,000 fine. The new law authorizes the Secretary to revise motor vehicle emission standards from time to time in response to new knowledge of the vehicular air pollution problem and improvements in technological capability for controlling vehicle emissions. The standards initially promulgated by the Secretary, as well as subsequent amendments, will become effective at a date designated by the Secretary and chosen in full recognition of the automotive industry's needs to "tool up" to meet the required standards. The standards will be applicable to all motor vehicles and engines, whether fueled by gasoline or diesel oil, but the Secretary is empowered to set standards by classes of vehicles or engines and to exempt certain classes for research or training purposes or for reasons of national security. The Secretary is required, when requested by a manufacturer, to test any prototype motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine to determine whether it conforms to established control standards. If he finds the tested equipment to be in compliance with the standards, he must issue a certificate of conformity to the manufacturer, and all vehicles and engines of the same design and construction as the equipment tested will be considered to be similarly in conformity. The certificate will be valid for not less than one year as prescribed by the Secretary. This new legislation provides the basis for uniform national control of automotive smog, a problem which individual cities and States cannot adequately deal with. Moreover, it gives the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare the legal means of securing control of any and all types of pollutants discharged by motor vehicles--those involved in the formation of photochemical smog as well as any others judged to present a hazard to human health or welfare. In this way, the benefits of present and future understanding and developments in the field of automotive air pollution and its control will be made available to people throughout the country, regardless of where they live. Prevention of Air Pollution As a means of preventing significant new sources of air pollution from being added to present contaminants, P.L. 89-272 authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to investigate and hold public conferences on potential air pollution problems, to be held in places where a potential air pollution discharge may be expected to affect adversely the public health or welfare. If the Secretary finds evidence that a pollutional discharge would likely contribute to an air pollution problem subject to abatement under the Clean Air Act, he is authorized to send his findings and recommendations both to the persons responsible for the potential air pollution source and to all control agencies in the affected area. These findings and recommendations would become a part of any formal abatement action taken under the Clean Air Act. The Secretary's recommendations, while only advisory, could exert a strong influence on those planning to undertake potential air polluting activities subject to control under Federal law. Abatement of International Air Pollution P.L. 89-272 extends the abatement authority of the Clean Air Act of 1963 to cover air pollution problems arising in the United States alleged to pose a health or welfare hazard for persons in neighboring countries. Whenever he is advised by a duly constituted international organization or by the Secretary of State that air pollution arising in the United States is adversely affecting persons in foreign countries, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare may invoke the abatement authority granted in the Clean Air Act. Action may lead to a suit in United States courts to secure abatement if steps short of this, as provided in the Clean Air Act, fail to achieve satisfactory results. The new legislation stipulates, however, that any foreign country which claims the right to seek abatement of an air pollution source in the United States must accord this country a reciprocal right to seek abatement of sources within the foreign country's borders. Expansion of Federal Facilities The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare is authorized to acquire, staff, and equip such facilities as are necessary to pursue the Department's responsibilities under P.L. 89-272. There will need to be expansion of the research and development facilities available to the Department's Division of Air Pollution, as the testing of new motor vehicles and engines will undoubtedly become a major activity requiring extensive new facilities, equipment, and skilled technical personnel. Moreover, the steady increase in research and development activities relating to other air pollution sources, the development of air quality criteria based on knowledge of pollutional effects, and the need to provide training for persons involved in air pollution control activities at State and local levels of government will continue to place a severe strain on available staff and facilities. Historical Background of the Automotive Air Pollution Problem The motor vehicle has emerged as a major source of air pollution throughout the Nation. Today cars, trucks, and buses are responsible for about half of the total air pollution problem--a situation that was unforeseen 25 years The explanation lies partly in the phenomenal rate of growth of the motor vehicle population. In 1940 there were about 32.5 million cars, trucks, and buses registered in the entire country. The number had climbed to 49.1 million by 1950 and by 1960 stood at just under 74 million. Today, as our way of life makes us more dependent on the automobile than any previous generation has ever been, there are 88 million motor vehicles in use; by 1985 there will be an estimated 110 million cars, trucks, and buses operating in urban areas alone. This device on a six-cylinder engine is typical of those being used by automobile manufacturers to With three-fourths of the net population increase occurring in urban areas, both the number and density of vehicles in metropolitan areas are rising sharply. Thus, the air pollution problem caused by motor vehicles is most severely felt in the same congested urban areas which now harbor most of our population and most other air pollution sources as well. The Public Health Service has estimated that any community which has 50,000 or more residents is faced today with an air pollution problem, at least in part because such communities have enough automobiles, trucks, and buses to produce photochemical smog. |