Air Pollution

In the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, the most recent effort to bolster the nation's air quality, Congress added more requirements for attaining national ambient air quality standards and reducing hazardous air pollutants and precursors to acid rain. The Business Roundtable has estimated that it could cost as much as $104 billion annually to implement three of the amendments' major provisions: those on acid deposition, air toxics, and the attainment of ozone standards. In light of this and other high cost estimates, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was required to conduct cost-benefit analyses of the legislation. This report describes EPA's (1) methodology for conducting the cost-benefit analyses, (2) progress in completing the analyses, and (3) costs incurred for contractors and EPA staff resources used to complete these analyses.

GAO found that: (1) EPA is undertaking a retrospective study to compare the economic, health, and environmental conditions that have resulted from the amendments enacted before 1990 with projections of what these conditions would have been without the amendments; (2) although the 1990 amendments specified that EPA complete the retrospective study by November 15, 1991, EPA estimates that it will not complete the study until 1994; (3) EPA will undertake a prospective study of the Clean Air Act amendments to compare the effects of air quality standards imposed by legislation enacted before 1990 with the effects of all potential post-1990 standards; (4) the completed retrospective study will cost an estimated $1.6 million and EPA will use about 12 staff-years to oversee the study; and (5) the total cost of both studies could reach $3.2 million and 24 staff-years.