Acid rain legislation

A FIGURE 14.22 Emissions of SO2 from 1980 to 2009 The height of each bar represents annual SO2 emissions for the year noted. Under the Clean Air Act and its amendments, SO2 emissions have been decreasing significantly in the last 30 years. 

Acid Properties Acids are responsible for the sour taste in many foods such as lemons, limes, and vinegar. They are also often used in the laboratory and in industry. 

Base Properties Bases are less common in foods, but their presence in some foods—such as coffee and beer— is enjoyed by many as an acquired taste. Bases also have widespread use in the laboratory and in industry. 

Acid—substance that produces H ions in solution Base—substance that produces OH ions in solution Brensted-Lowry definition Acid—proton donor Base—proton acceptor 

Arrhenius definition is simpler and easier to use. It also shows how an acid and a base neutralize each other to form water (H -l- OH --- H2O). The more gener- 

M FIGURE 15.18 U.S. Sulfur Dioxide FVtliutant Leveis As a result of amendments to the Clean Air Act passed in 1990, SO, levels have been decreasing and will continue to decrease in the coming years. 

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The second reason for environmental projections is the significance of control costs. For example, proposed acid rain legislation could cost utilities and their customers billions of dollars. Before this money is spent, it is important to be able to evaluate the effects that controls may have on emissions, on employment, in different regions of the country, and the like. A large share of S02 emissions are from older, dirtier, coal-fired power plants. If these plants are retiring in a few years, it may not make economic sense to spend millions or billions of dollars to retrofit them with controls. On the other hand, if such plants will be operating for many years to come, the benefits may be considered worth the expense. 

This willingness to consider economics more fully tends to polarize the decision making process if there is no formal decision rule to guide the regulator. It is precisely the economic trade-off debate that has stalled acid rain legislation for so long. There is little question but that regulators are able to act more quickly, if not more -ationally, when health effects are at stake. 

While there are differences, of course, between the problems posed by acid rain and those related to other pollutants with welfare effects, such as ozone (for example, the political/economic constraints posed by the coal switching problem), there are several critical similarities. Without attempting to review each and every acid rain proposal or to review the history of the acid rain legislation, there are broad characteristics of the alternative proposals which bear on materials damages in general. 

Katzberger, S. M. and Sloat, D. G., 1990, Options for Compliance with Acid Rain Legislation, ASME Paper No. 90-JPGC/Pwr-22, paper presented at ASME/IEEE International Joint Power Generation Conference. Boston, MA, Oct. 21-25. 

Similarly there are also regional differentials in the benefits from control. Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota have already introduced state-level sulphur dioxide control legislation. In some cases the motivation can be as much economic as environmental. In Minnesota, for example, acid rain legislation in 1982 was intended to protect the state s lakes which are an important source of revenue from sport fishing and tourism (Wang, Ham and Byrne, 1988). 

Reynolds, L. 1982. Economic and employment impacts of proposed acid rain legislation. Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Comm., Sub-comm. on Arms Control, Oceans, International Operations and Environment. Feb. 10, 1982. Washington, DC. 

The reduction of atmospheric concentrations of the sulfur and nitrogen oxides blamed for acid rain was a major issue in the debate that led to the 1990 Clean Ail-Act Amendments (CAAA). The final legislative action is one of the most complex and comprehensive pieces of environmental legislation ever written. 

In the 1970s, the realization that combustion of fuels containing S and N was causing acid rain phenomenon, led to legislation that initiated the regulation of the concentration... 

The detrimental effects of acid rain are a major reason why legislation such as the Clean Air Act places strict limitations on sulfur and nitrogen emissions. It is also a reason why low sulfur coal is preferred over high sulfur coal. To reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, industry also uses a technique call scrubbing. Industrial scrubbers employ a variety of physical and chemical processes to remove sulfur dioxide from emissions. Another technique used to combat acidification of lakes is to treat these systems with lime. The lime acts to neutralize the acid, but such techniques are usually costly and are only a temporary remedy for combating the problem. 

The reduction of pollutants in automobile exhaust and in industrial waste and stack gases is of major concern in Western Europe. This was fueled in the last years by the extensive forest die-back caused by acid rain. Government policies are to achieve substantial reductions in the emissions of hydrocarbons (HC s), CO, SO2, NOx and particulate matter. Road traffic is one of the major contributors to the man made emissions of HC s, CO and NOx. International and national regulations, legislation and incentives coming into force will substantially reduce these emissions. 

The politics of acid rain in Europe are complicated by the large number of countries that are involved. At one level, acid rain politics in Europe have been a matter of inter-state negotiation among a large number of European states, Canada, the United States, and the Russian Federation. Much of the legislation governing acid rain in Europe has been formulated through the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. This means that at times... 

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