Chapter 5:  A Guide to Materials on Air Pollution Control Available on the Internet

EPA's regulations implementing the Clean Air Act are codified at 40 C.F.R. pts. 50-96. These CFR sections are available online through the National Archives and Records Administration's website, which includes a searchable version of the Code of Federal Regulations (http://www.gpo.gov/nara/about-cfr.html) and an electronic version of the CFR ("e-CFR") updated continuously, which can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/ecfr.

EPA's Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) is the office responsible for implementing the Clean Air Act. OAR's webpage is located at http://www.epa.gov/oar. This webpage provides daily updates of news and events concerning air pollution and the Clean Air Act. The website serves as a gateway for access to a tremendous amount of information about the Clean Air Act and the agency's complex air pollution control regulations. Information about ongoing EPA rulemaking proceedings can be obtained from the agency's Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center (http://www.epa.gov/oar/docket.html). Copies of policy and guidance documents issued by EPA's OAR can now be found online at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg.

EPA has published a "Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act" to make its complex provisions easier for laypersons to understand. Copies of this document, issued shortly after enactment of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, are available on the web at http://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/peg_caa/pegcaain.html. Data on air quality trends is available at http://www.epa.gov/oar/airdata. Maps of ozone nonattainment areas in the U.S. can be found at http://www.epa.gov/airnow/ozone.html.

Specific air pollution control initiatives are explained on Oar's website. Information on new source review is available at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/nsr. National emissions standards to control hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs) under § 112 of the Act are described at: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t3main.html. The agency's acid deposition control program is explained at http://www.epa.gov/air/acidrain. Information about emissions trading under this program is at http://www.epa.gov/oar/trading.html.

EPA maintains a Technology Transfer Network (TTN Web) website that provides technical information about air pollution control at http://www.epa.gov/ttn. The TTN Web includes detailed information about air quality monitoring programs and methods, trends in air quality, control technologies, and legal requirements under the Act. EPA has prepared reports to Congress that review estimates of the benefits and costs of the Clean Air Act, both retrospectively and prospectively. Copies of these two reports are now available on the web at http://www.epa.gov/airprogm/oar/sect812/index.html.

The Congressional Research Service has prepared a report for Congress on air quality and vehicle emission standards that reviews current efforts by EPA to stimulate the development and marketing of new low emission motor vehicles. The report is available online at http://cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/Air/air-23.cfm

The American Meteorological Society has a website that provides considerable information on the history of efforts to control air pollution in the United States, including links to copies of important historical documents and the papers of the late Senator Edmund S. Muskie at Colby College http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS/sloan/cleanair.

The Association of State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO) have a website located at http://www.cleanairworld.org/scripts/stappa.asp. The American Lung Association, a nonprofit group active on air pollution issues, maintains a website that provides information about the Clean Air Act, the state of air quality, and various programs to control air pollution at http://www.lungusa.org.