Government
Clean air standards under scrutiny again Special commission will pick alternatives to present air quality regulations, test them in five different areas, suggest changes to Congress Lois R. Ember C&EN, Washington
The National Commission on Air Quality is searching for options to regulations that eventually will be tested in five different regions of the country. These alternative policies will be selected at the commission's meeting next month, but they will not be tested until next year. The commission, a short-lived creation of Congress, is charged with reviewing the Clean Air Act. It is specifically mandated to test nonregulatory alternatives for protecting and enhancing air quality. This is an unusual mission in light of industry's often ventilated plaint of excessive, burdensome rules that retard economic growth and stifle innovation. The commission, whose broad mandate is set forth in Section 323 of the 1977 amendments, is blessed with a brief life span of three years and damned by a tight total budget of $10 million. Within these constraints it will undertake the study of eight major research areas. One study will explore approaches other than existing legal and institutional strategies for air pollution control. The 13 commissioners who will consider the options were drawn from Congress and the public. The four Congressional members sit on the House and Senate committees that drafted the Clean Air Act and will be responsible for future changes to the law. The remaining nine members were appointed by the President. Unfortunately, all the public members were not named until July 1978, fully one year after the commission was to have started up. This delay means that the panel will not meet another deadline: August 1980, when its recommendations to Congress are due. It is expected, however, that the commission will ask Congress
contracts totaling $496,000 have been let. Although the other regions have yet to be selected, the commission staff members have been mulling over what characteristics the chosen areas should have in order to yield the most representative range of problems possible. Among these areas chosen for study there likely will be one with both a polluting source and a receptor, so that nonregulatory solutions to such problems as long-range transport of pollutants can be tested. "Certainly we're anxious," Ward says, "to get a region that is anticipating a fair amount of energy development." This makes the Four Corners area in the Southwest another possible choice. And it raises the tantalizing institutional problems of cooperation Ward: question how to achieve goals among four state governments. Still another possible choice could for a one-year extension and that this be a Frost Belt city that is experirequest will be granted. Thus, pre- encing a slow rate of growth. Philasumably by August 1981, the com- delphia or Cleveland might be the city mission will have submitted its report selected in this case. to Congress and thereafter will cease The four additional geographical to exist. areas are to be selected by the end of Included in this report will be a the month, and the options to be section on policy alternatives to am- tested in these regions are to be chobient air quality standards, especially sen at the commission's November options or modifications to the most meeting. Among the policy options being cumbersome, controversial parts of the 1977 act: prevention of significant considered are emission fees, emission deterioration (PSD) and nonattain- banks, marketable emission rights, ment regulations. As the commis- and such tax incentives as rapid sion's assistant director for public amortization of pollution-control affairs and administration Morris equipment. These could be put in Ward explains, "Our mandate doesn't place without tampering with the tell us to question the goals of the act, Clean Air Act. Furthermore, they are it tells us to question how to achieve not particularly novel approaches, the goals." having been bandied about inside and This mandate shapes the quest. outside the Environmental ProtecEventually the air quality commis- tion Agency for a number of years. sion will undertake five regional Nevertheless, proponents claim that studies, which in part will test non- these market-based structures would regulatory policy mechanisms and/or offer industries economic incentives modifications to existing regulations. to reduce their emissions. Still other approaches, those most For example, for each region, these questions could be considered: What favored by the business community if would be the effect on achieving or the Chemical Manufacturers Associnot achieving the ambient air quality ation is any barometer, are modifistandards if the class concept in the cations to PSD and nonattainment PSD regulatory scheme were aban- regulations, and to the scientific and doned? How would this affect energy economic underpinnings of the nause, local economies, unemployment? tional ambient air quality standards What kind of resource demands (NAAQS). Again, these approaches would this change make? offer no substantive changes to curTo date, only the southern Cali- rent law. Neither would implemenfornia region has been selected, and tation of a fairly recent addition to Oct. 29, 1979 C&EN
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Defining the policy alternatives to regulations Emission fees could be levied on sources based on a set quantity of pollution emitted during some unit of time, presumably one year. Any unit of pollution emitted above that set amount would be a violation that would be translated into a higher fee. This system is most applicable to the criteria pollutants—hydrocarbons (HC), ozone (03), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Marketable emission rights is a permitting system that overcomes the major flaw in a fee-based system: determining the appropriate fee to assess. An agency could determine how many tons of emissions would be allowed, how many sources would be permitted to emit that amount of pollution, and then could sell the allotted number of permits at auction. The market would establish the charge, and sources would be free to buy and sell permits. The system is especially applicable to HC-, 0 3 -, and NOx-emitting sources. Emission banking would credit a facility with a reduction in emissions, which it could "bank" for use at a later date to expand operations or to transfer to another source. Emission density zoning is a land-use approach to protecting air-quality-related values. Under it, a specific geo-
the seemingly limited range of options, the tariff emission reduction assessment scheme, constitute a new path. Substantive changes in the structure of the Clean Air Act would result if variations on the emission density zoning theme were put in place. This would be especially so, if technology-based regulations similar to those mandated by the Clean Water Act replaced current ambient air quality standards. Emission density zoning would permit pollutant control on a regional (even national) basis, and might be one way of reining in the spread of acid precipitation by setting a national limit on sulfate emissions. But this particular approach raises some horrendous questions. Where, for instance, do you set the pollution ceiling? At today's level? Higher, or lower? This is only one unresolved problem. All these alternatives are being considered because there is growing awareness that the "act as currently structured is doing little to address such problems as long-range transport of pollutants," Ward says. Especially prickly, and perhaps in16
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graphical area would be allocated a defined amount of pollution (not to exceed national ambient air quality standards), which would then be auctioned off to sources. This mechanism is particularly suitable for controlling the criteria pollutants S0 2 , particulate matter, and, possibly, CO. Total emission loading concept is a variant of the emission density zoning approach whereby an agency decides the total amount of pollution to be allowed over a large geographical area, possibly the entire U.S. This total ceiling is then parceled out, under a fee system, by region. The allocation, however, might be given to one industry or even one plant within a particular region. This loading approach could be used for controlling fluorocarbons and sulfate emissions. Transferable emissions reduction assessments would extend EPA's current "bubble concept" to an entire metropolitan area. Within the covered area, all permitted sources would be assessed additional pollution reductions. The sources could meet the goal internally by reducing their own emissions by the assessed amount, or externally by buying another company's reductions. This scheme is especially applicable for controlling HC and 0 3 .
effectual, are the PSD and nonattainment regulations. Briefly, an area in which a NAAQS for a criteria pollutant is not being met is a nonattainment area. New facilities wishing to locate in this area must make certain that their emissions are more than "offset" by pollution reductions from all sources in the area. Areas meeting NAAQS are designated attaining areas, and new sources are subject to PSD requirements. For these areas, maximum allowable ambient increments have been established for the criteria pollutants sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. These increments, added to certain baseline concentrations for SO2 and particles, never exceed NAAQS. Attainment areas are further defined as Class I where PSD increments are small and little deterioration of air quality is permitted, or Class II or III where progressively larger increases are permitted. A single region may be subject to both nonattainment and PSD rules. Los Angeles, for example, a city in the only region yet chosen by the commission for study, is nonattainment for particulate matter, but PSD for
SO2. This makes it ideal for testing nonregulatory options against these controversial regulatory schemes. The air quality commission has called on interested groups to offer suggestions on policy options and the regions in which to test them. At this juncture, however, neither the business nor the environmental communities are offering substantive changes in the air law. Rather, to the discouragement of the commission staff, they seem to be holding to the adage "better an enemy that is known than one that is unknown." Partly from the belief that it is politically infeasible to alter drastically the current regulatory structure within the next few years, and partly from fear of superimposing a complex market structure on an already complicated regulatory scheme, business, as represented by CMA and the Business Roundtable, is looking only for incremental changes in the act: for instance, shifting the basis for NAAQS from zero risk to risk assessment, and streamlining the PSD process, possibly by eliminating Class II and III designations. Although some environmental groups, notably the Environmental Defense Fund, have been more forward-looking than others, this much-splintered movement is beginning to realize that the air law as presently structured is not able to attack the most serious air problems—toxic air pollutants and acid rain, for example. For this reason, the groups are beginning to see economic mechanisms as more attractive longrange strategies. Sealed bid auctions for emission rights, emission fees, and even taxes on such pollutants as SO2 are being viewed more favorably. Despite the limited choice, the alternatives ultimately selected and tested by the commission offer some semblance of progress. As Ward asserts, the commission "may be able to go out to Congress with a final report that says this concept has this kind of appeal, these advantages, these drawbacks, and it has been tested in five regions of the country." Will the commission's recommendations have any influence on Congress in 1981 or 1982? No, Ward says, "not if we come out with a report. . . dealing with [old] issues, or if the commission's research efforts are not well geared to what Congress is in the mood for at that point." Just what Congress will be "in the mood for at that point," Ward doesn't know. But he hopes the commission will be on target. He is, however, philosophical: "All these esoteric [problems and concepts] are going to be considered in the political process and anything can fly." •
