M7A1: Energy Policy Paper: Final

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College

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Tech 340 Introduction to Energy Utilization

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Executive Summary

This paper comprehensively analyses the energy policies formulation and implementation by exerting the difficulties involved in the process. As well, the article puts emphasis on the achievement of the intended outcomes of a successful implementation of the energy policies and the influence of technology to energy sources alternatives. Further, the article assesses the unintended consequences of the implementation of any energy policy in a respective jurisdiction. The study focuses on the research of the Clean Air Act (CAA), its formulation, implementation, and the consequences it has had on aiding in the conservation and protection of the environment by controlling energy production and utilization policies in the United States of America. Thus, the article asserts the importance of the CAA regulations to ensuring a habitable environment for future generations and safe for human health.

 

 

 

Energy Policy Paper: – Clean Air Act

1. Introduction

This paper extensively covers the research to elaborate the energy policy development adequately, factors influencing the process, and unintended consequences. The concern of the energy policy paper is to outline the process of energy production and utilization. As an effectively process the policy follows the clear guidelines as provided in the Clean Air Act (CAA). The act provides critical effects to the United States of America energy production and utilization policies. In turn, the policy outlines the reason why the CAA was instituted to manage formulation and implementation of better energy policies in the country. The paper further discusses the profound importance of the CAA by assessing whether it has produced the desired results as envisioned in its development. Therefore, to get to the bottom of the energy policies, the article emphasizes the effects the CAA has had on technology and issues related to energy production and utilization.

1. Policy Basis

The Clean Air Act is an environmental law passed to aid in human health. The United States of America policies formulation emphasizes on taking into consideration the public health as a critical entity in the process. In this regard, the CAA in energy policies basis treats human health as the core entity to be put first in the implementation process. The impact of energy policies is to be valued in terms of assuring of safety and free health risk to Americans. For example, nuclear power generation despite its high potential to yield high energy productivity poses a huge health risk to the Americans. Thus, high-level vigilance and control are to be sustained in nuclear energy policies. As well, the CAA provides policies to promote adequate agriculture and limit, mitigate or eliminate the expulsion of greenhouse gases; reversing the effects that the human population has caused.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) first enacted in 1970 didn’t address or regulate particulates less than 10 micrometers in diameter (Frankland & FRANKLAND, 2002). The law clearly in its early stages suffered deficits to the areas it could control and emphasize on restrictions to be embraced. The processing of putting in place successful measures to aid the CAA laws serves a crucial role in the energy policies. The Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990 provided confirmation that air quality amelioration capitalized had a positive impact on housing prices and rents (Frankland & FRANKLAND, 2002). The development marked a significant step to the policies formulation regarding energy production and utilization in the United States. The step is significant to ensuring safe production and safety of consumption while maintaining a steady flow of energy to the American citizens.

Additionally, the CAA sections the country into regions, and it sets goals for where the heavier variation of pollutants are prominent in the air. This is a crucial feature to map out various parts of the country that have the highest pollutant emissions prominent in the air. The significance of the process according to the CAA regulations is to provide mitigations measures that can assist the responsible agencies to respond to the problem effectively. In turn, there is a guarantee of keeping the environment safe for living and maintaining a conducive environment for ecological manifestations. The process of keeping the air clean and pollutants free is crucial to maintaining sound energy policies in the United States as stated in the CAA regulations.

Further, the emission standards have been raised for specific industry categories and explicitly state the emission levels allowable. The CAA provides the regulated standards of emission level allowed to exist in the air before it becomes harmful to the environment. The government agencies responsible for such entities must maintain their vigilance to assess the emissions such as the ones produced by vehicles in respective regions do not surpass the provided standards. In turn, this plays a crucial role in ensuring safety for human beings, good environment, and direct impact on health care (Rom et al., 2011). Therefore, the basis of energy policies is clear to go hand in hand with health care considerations.

1. Achievement of Intended Outcome

The research on energy policies is in line with ascertaining human health as the primary objective in the process. Further research asserts that the CAA of 1970 established the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) that is intended to identify and review pollutants deemed harmful to public health (Portney, 1990). This forms a profoundly important part of the act to ensure the safety of the Americans health by maintaining the lowest levels of pollutant emissions to the environment. The act serves a critical part in energy policies regulations where various companies are involved in its production and utilization. The preparation of energy policies is to be made in such a way that, the public health is at its heart.

Moreover, the CAA has many layers and if it only makes one think about possible pollution then in many cases it has done an important task already. As such, the fluidity of the CAA has led to some excellent and reasonable regulations that are profound in the pollution maintenance to sustainable levels. The government by mapping out regions distinctly provides mechanisms of classifying the level of pollution and its category (Bento et al., 2015). Hence, provide a creative response process to mitigate the air pollution problem and retain the safety of the environment and region to support healthy living. Thus, the Act was passed to safeguard the health in human beings and public welfare by regulating and monitoring the emission and pollutants in the air.

For example, the component of being a protection to the greater human good includes one such piece as the “Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program that reflects the principle that areas, where air quality is better than that required by NAAQS, should be protected from significant new air pollution even some pollution may not incur a violation. The regulation as enshrined in the CAA entails that just a one percent decline in total suspended particles resulted in a 0.5 percent decline in the infant mortality rate, the results imply that roughly 1,300 fewer babies died in 1972 than would have in the absence of the Clean Air Act (Chay & Greenstone, 2003). Therefore, this asserts the importance of the CAA formulation and implementation in providing guidelines to safeguard the society and human life.

1. Influence on Technology

The focus on technology has been a fundamental entity in various policies as its continuously contributes to the rapid changes experienced in different departments. The functionality of energy departments and related entities must regard technological advances as crucial features to the process of energy production and utilization. The influence of technology on energy policies is profound with immense impact to energy consumption. For example, the advent of burning wood heat, there has been an increase in pollution that has entered the atmosphere. As the needs have changed so has the fuel production and utilization. In most homes, the use of wood as a source of energy has diminished significantly, impacting to the reduction of pollution in the air. On a contrary scenario where technology is ignored to incorporate the use of such energy sources as cooking gas and electricity, the levels of pollution in the air would otherwise increase posing a significant threat to human health.

The CAA forced a change to be made by requiring that emissions be limited to certain levels, these levels are not always familiar and rarely if ever unanimously agreed upon until after the fact (Burtraw et al., 2014). As a result, the application of technology has been profound to mitigating the level of emissions by making early detections. The initial detections of emissions of pollutants into the environment are quickly noted due to constant monitoring of the environment, climate changes, and the atmospheres. This has all been facilitated to the advancement of technology, in turn, enhancing the expertise and capabilities to monitor the atmosphere and environment efficiently.

Also, the level of innovation leading to a need for less coal is the explosion of the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) industry that has produced a massive amount of natural gas in the United States. As a result, this marks the technological transformation turning point cause a diversification of energy productivity reducing pollutants that are widely used by people. The new techniques in horizontal drilling have been so successful that they have spawned the need for the emissions from the machinery employed in the recovery process to be monitored and regulated, so the local and regional air quality are not compromised (Minott & Skinner, 2012). Thus, ascertaining an opportunity to strive further to sustain a conducive environment that is favorable to all.

1. Unintended Consequences

The comprehensive research on energy policies formulation and implementation finds various unintended consequences that arise in the process of energy production and utilization. The thorough study of the CAA regulations breaks down the approach to environmental conservation and protection. For example, the coal industry affected due to emissions regulations was mostly about particulate, in the beginning, they have morphed into the strict regulation of CO2 reductions. This kind of re-innovation to the approach of understanding and tackling emissions into the environment has had significant impacts to sustaining the intended course. However, the earlier focus of the unplanned results has had unprecedented impacts to the environment that have profoundly devastating effects.

Hence, the EPA required more regulation while others believe the opposite and feel that the EPA is a clandestine operation and is unconstitutional (Curley, 2015; Sunstein, 1999). Th confusion and wrangles involved in the process further derailed the process of finding a lasting solution to the environment conservation and protection program. The formulated policies, thus, serve the unintended and uncontrolled causes, as well as, results. In turn, end up serving the wrong purpose and fail to meet the desired objectives. Many feel as though the EPA violates, Article I, Section 1, vests legislative power in the Congress and that this vesting cannot be waived, even if Congress and the public want to do so (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2016). The lack clarity to the law undermined the whole process making the act unresponsive to its intended purpose.

1. Summary

In conclusion, many positives have been attained because of the CAA formulation and implement. Such include the infant mortality or the ability to see in Pittsburgh or LA all the way to fish in lakes because of the reduction of acid rain. The sustenance of conducive environment to support life has been successful by implementing the CAA regulations to safeguard the environment. As well, the wave of eco-friendly vehicles, cleaner options for coal and alternate fuels have grown by leaps in the last decade. The application of technology to advance energy consumption is a core entity of energy policy as it serves the purpose of reducing the pollutant emissions into the atmosphere. The transformation of the means of energy sources impacts greatly to better alternatives that are eco-friendly.

Therefore, if the environment is paramount and we want the earth to be habitable for the next 1,000 years, the government should appropriate funds to aid the less fortunate to have a newer safe for the environment products available as well. This culminates into doing everything possible to ensure that the environment is still habitable for the next generations. The present generation has a role to serve, conserve, and protect the environment aggressively by implementing a stream of measures such as those enshrined in the CAA and EPA acts to provide mechanisms of energy production and consumptions policies.

 

 

References

Bento, A., Freedman, M., & Lang, C. (2015). WHO BENEFITS FROM ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION? EVIDENCE FROM THE CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS. Review of Economics & Statistics., 97(3), 610-622.

Burtraw, D., Linn J., Palmer K., and Paul A. 2014. “The Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Act Regulation of CO2 from Power Plants.” American Economic Review, 104(5): 557-62.

Chay, K., & Greenstone, M. (2003). Air Quality, Infant Mortality, and the Clean Air Act of 1970. The National Bureau of Economic Research. doi:10.3386/w1005

Curley, K. (2015). THE EPA IS ONLY “SORT OF” PERMITTED TO REGULATE GREENHOUSE GASES UNDER THE CLEAN AIR ACT: HOW UTILITY AIR REGULATORY GROUP V. EPA SHOWS THE SUPREME COURT IS STILL HOT AND COLD ON CLIMATE CHANGE. Touro Law Review, 31(3), 589-614.

Frankland, E., & FRANKLAND, E. (2002). Clean Air Act. International Encyclopedia Of Environmental Politics

Minott, J., & Skinner, J. (2012). Fugitive Emissions: The Marcellus Shale and the Clean Air Act. Natural Resources & Environment, (3). 44.

Portney, P. R. (1990). Economics and the Clean Air Act. Journal Of Economic Perspectives, 4(4), 173-181.

Rom, William N., Jr. Public Health/Environmental Health Ser. : Environmental Policy and Public Health: Air Pollution, Global Climate Change, and Wilderness (1). Hoboken, US: Jossey-Bass, 2011. ProQuest library. Web. 22 January 2017.

Sunstein, C. R. (1999). Is the Clean Air Act Unconstitutional?. Michigan Law Review, (2). 303.

Union of Concerned Scientists. (2016). Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved from Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/reduce-emissions/the-clean-air-act.html#.V0u2XL7QOts

Union of Concerned Scientists. (2016, March 14). Global Warming Science. Retrieved from Science for a healthy planet and safer world: http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-science#.V0vBfb7QOts