The original Clean Air Act (CAA), signed into law in 1963, set emissions standards for stationary sources, like factories and power plants. The CAA was amended several times, most recently in 1990. These 1990 amendments established more stringent emissions standards for motor vehicles. Criteria pollutants included lead, hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM), as well as air toxicities. Among other provisions, the CAAA required certain metropolitan fleet operators to purchase increasingly larger numbers of clean-fuel vehicles.
A 1990 Federal law that identifies "mobile sources" (vehicles) as primary sources of pollution and calls for stringent new requirements in metropolitan areas and states where attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) is, or could be, a problem.
The comprehensive federal legislation which establishes criteria for attaining and maintaining the federal standards for allowable concentrations and exposure limits for various air pollutants; the act also provides emission standards for specific vehicles and fuels.
A comprehensive set of amendments to the federal law governing the nation's air quality. The Clean Air Act was originally passed in 1970 to address significant air pollution problems in our cities. The 1990 amendments broadened and strengthened the original law to address specific problems such as acid deposition, urban smog, hazardous air pollutants and stratospheric ozone depletion.
legislation amending the Clean Air Act thereby defining more stringent national air emission standards.
The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) require the Washington region and about 100 other areas with air quality problems to take a structured, multi-year approach to attaining federal clean air standards within federally established deadlines. The deadlines vary according to the severity of the region's air pollution problems. Transportation planning and clean air planning are interconnected in several ways. Most critically, federal highway funding aid may be withheld as one of the sanctions imposed for failure to meet CAAA requirements. Secondly, the region must show that its transportation plans and programs are in conformity with the region's clean air plans. Finally, the region's clean air plans include transportation control measures (TCMs) intended to reduce emissions from mobile sources, which are given a special, priority status for federal-aid funding in the region's annual Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
Because northern New Jersey fails to meet national standards for certain air-borne pollutants, the CAAA requires the NJTPA to use its planning processes to give priority funding to improvement projects, called Transportation Control Measures, which reduce tailpipe emissions by altering travel patterns, mode choice or traffic flow. Each year, the NJTPA is also required to conduct computer modeling to demonstrate that projects it approves for implementation through the TIP, taken together, help achieve state air quality goals contained in the SIP. Concerns about air quality impacts, therefore, enter into many of the NJTPA's investment decisions.
Represent a major overhaul of the earlier Clean Air Act of 1970. Changes include revised provisions for attainment and maintenance of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, mobile sources, hazardous air pollutants, and other assorted air quality issues. In addition, it establishes guidelines for reductions in air pollution. The Act also specifically limits sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions of power plants.