Environmental And Resource Policy In The United States

Sadie Pan ARE 3434W 04/12/18 Environmental and Resource Policy in the United States Introduction As the 30th anniversary of the Earth Day as well as the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency is getting closer, the time has come for the administration of the United States to evaluate their environmental policies, which include what these policies have been able to accomplish, and the limitations that they must have overcome by now. There have been several environmental policies that have been enacted in the United States that ought to be re-looked into. One of those policies that has been suggested by the Trump’s administration is what is commonly referred to as the “once in, always in,” (OIAI). It is important to remember that the OIAI is a policy that was enacted by the EPA during Clinton’s era. This policy was geared towards looking into reductions of the hazardous industrial resources that were polluting the air. The major sources of the air pollution were required by the OIAI policy to be classifying as major sources. However, many pundits have argued that if this policy is eradicated, then those facilities that are standing a chance of emitting 10 tons of air pollutants every year of any given hazardous air pollutant (HAP) may be categorized as non- major sources (Burtraw,Art and Nathan 293). This essay examines the background of the Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, that introduced the policy which is commonly referred to as “Once In, Always In (OIAI).” This policy allowed the major sources of air pollution not to be subjected to the standards set by the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT). The Background of the OIAI Policy The famous “once in, always in,” (OIAI) policy was established in 1990 after the amendment of section 112 of the Clean Air Act sponsored by the federal government (Greenstone 1175). The policy allowed the major sources of air pollutants not to be subjected to their individual standards established by the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT). It is important to remember that the MACT standards were to accept an enforceable caveat below the threshold of the main sources so long as the limit was there before the first strong date of compliance, which in many cases was back during the 1990s. After the first date of compliance, however, any existing major source that was subjected to the Standards would permanently remain the subject so long as the policy is still there. The OIAI policy stated that any major source of air pollution were required to install the MACT, to comply with any kind of reporting, keeping of records, and any other standard that was enacted by the EPA. Other than complying with these standards of MACT, the major sources were also required by the policy to acquire the Title V, which was the operating permit. Different experts have stated that the OIAI policy has allowed any major source of air pollutants could reduce the emission of its hazardous air pollutants below the level of being categorized as a major source. In other words if a major source of air pollution complied to the standards of MACT at the first date of compliance, the source would be needed to conform to the emission limitations or any other requirement that might be deemed a...