Environmental Law, The regulation of Air Quality Essay

Environmental Law, The regulation of Air Quality - Essay Example These are important in order to find out any weak points in the regulations, to check for possible improvements in laws, and to obtain sufficient data to support or debunk regulations as needed.As such, initiating test runs for these policies and regulations can contribute to long-term solutions to air quality issues by supporting efforts to implement these at the earliest possible time. For the last four decades, sources of large-scale air pollutants such as cement factories and petroleum drilling sites were identified to pose high hazards in greatly-affecting air quality for large areas. However, in recent decades the contribution of automobile emissions were also seen as sources of particulate matter and greenhouse gases due to the gasoline combustion process in these vehicles. These results prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA to create regulations for the reduction of toxic pollutants and the release of particulate matter into the atmosphere. The successful reduction of air pollutants were tied with the implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1970, and at present has reduced emissions by up to two-thirds of emission rates during the 1960’s (Costa, 2011). However, the EPA still recognizes the need to further reduce vehicle emission rates through the generation of greener automobile technologies, thus the initiation of the National Program to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for cars to be released in the years 2017-2025, which are based on the standards under the Clean Air Act (US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, 2013). It is expected that through the implementation of these new emission standards, carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced to an average of 163g/mile, there will be lesser dependence on oil due to higher efficiency rates, and in turn will benefit consumers a net of $3,400 to $5,000 worth of fuel