Clean Air Act: EPA Has Completed Most of the Actions Required by 
the 1990 Amendments, but Many Were Completed Late (27-MAY-05,	 
GAO-05-613).							 
                                                                 
While air quality in the United States has steadily improved over
the last few decades, more than a hundred million Americans	 
continue to live in communities where pollution causes the air to
be unhealthy at times, according to the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA). The Clean Air Act, first passed in 1963, was last  
reauthorized and amended in 1990, when new programs were created 
and changes were made to the ways in which air pollution is	 
controlled. The 1990 amendments included hundreds of requirements
for EPA, as well as other parties, to take steps that will	 
ultimately reduce air pollution. The amendments also established 
deadlines for many of these requirements. Since the 1990	 
amendments, various actions have been proposed to either amend	 
the Clean Air Act or implement its provisions in new ways. GAO	 
was asked to report on the current status of EPA's implementation
of requirements under Titles I, III, and IV of the 1990 	 
amendments. These titles, which address national ambient air	 
quality standards, hazardous air pollutants, and acid deposition 
control, respectively, are the most relevant to proposed	 
legislation and recently finalized regulations addressing	 
emissions of air pollutants by power plants.			 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-613 					        
    ACCNO:   A25323						        
  TITLE:     Clean Air Act: EPA Has Completed Most of the Actions     
Required by the 1990 Amendments, but Many Were Completed Late	 
     DATE:   05/27/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Air pollution					 
	     Air pollution control				 
	     Environmental law					 
	     Environmental monitoring				 
	     Schedule slippages 				 
	     Standards						 
	     Environmental policies				 
	     Health hazards					 

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GAO-05-613

                 United States Government Accountability Office

                     GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

May 2005

CLEAN AIR ACT

EPA Has Completed Most of the Actions Required by the 1990 Amendments, but Many
                              Were Completed Late

                                       a

GAO-05-613

[IMG]

May 2005

CLEAN AIR ACT

EPA Has Completed Most of the Actions Required by the 1990 Amendments, but Many
Were Completed Late

  What GAO Found

As of April 2005, EPA had completed 404 of the 452 actions required to
meet the objectives of Titles I, III, and IV of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990. Of the 338 requirements that had statutory deadlines
prior to April 2005, EPA completed 256 late: many (162) 2 years or less
after the required date, but others (94) more than 2 years after their
deadlines. Consequently, improvements in air quality associated with some
of these requirements may have been delayed. The numerous actions required
to implement these titles varied in scope and complexity. For example,
these actions included reviewing numerous state plans to comply with
national health- and welfare-based air quality standards for six major
pollutants, setting technology-based standards to reduce emissions from
sources of hazardous air pollutants, and developing a new program to
reduce acid rain. EPA officials cited several reasons for the missed
deadlines, including the emphasis on stakeholders' involvement during
regulatory development, which added to the time needed to issue
regulations; the need to set priorities among the tremendous number of new
responsibilities EPA assumed as a result of the 1990 amendments, which
meant that some actions had to be delayed; and competing demands caused by
the workload associated with EPA's response to lawsuits challenging some
of its rules.

Of the 48 requirements EPA had not met as of April 2005, 45 had associated
deadlines, and 3 did not. The unmet requirements include 15 Title I
requirements to promulgate regulations to limit the emissions of volatile
organic compounds from a number of consumer and commercial products, such
as household cleaners and pesticides. According to EPA officials, these
rules were not completed because EPA shifted its priorities toward issuing
standards related to the emissions of hazardous air pollutants regulated
under Title III. However, the unmet requirements also include actions
under Title III to periodically assess whether EPA's emissions standards
for sources that emit significant amounts of hazardous air pollutants
appropriately protect public health. These "residual risk" assessments are
to be made within 8 years of the setting of each of the emissions
standards, and 19 of these assessments are now past the 8-year mark. EPA
completed the first of these residual risk assessments in March 2005. Any
improvements in air quality that would result from EPA meeting these
requirements remain unrealized.

In commenting on a draft of this report, EPA generally agreed with our
findings and provided supplemental information, primarily on the benefits
of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the reasons for implementation
delays (see app. V).

                 United States Government Accountability Office

Contents

Letter                                                                   1 
                                  Results in Brief                          3 
                                     Background                             4 
            EPA Has Implemented Almost All Required Actions, but Many Were 
                                  Implemented Late                          7 
                                    Observations                           12 
                         Agency Comments and Our Evaluation                13 

Appendixes                                                              
                Appendix I:                    Title I                     14 
               Appendix II:                   Title III                    20 
              Appendix III:                    Title IV                    25 
              Appendix IV:        Objective, Scope, and Methodology        28 
                Appendix V:   Comments from the Environmental Protection   30 
                                                Agency                     
              Appendix VI:      GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments     38 

Tables	Table 1: Table 2: Table 3: Table 4: Table 5: Table 6: Table 7:
Table 8: Table 9:

Requirements with and without Statutory Deadlines as of
April 2005, by Related Title
Status of Title I-, III-, and IV-Related Requirements as of
April 2005
Length of Time by which EPA Missed Deadlines for Title I-,
III-, and IV-Related Requirements
Status of Requirements Related to Title I of the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990 as of April 2005
Length of Time by which Title I-Related Requirements with
Statutory Deadlines Were Met Late
Title I-Related Requirements with Statutory Deadlines Not
Met by EPA as of April 2005
Status of Requirements under Title III of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 as of April 2005
Length of Time by which Title III Requirements with
Statutory Deadlines Were Met Late
Title III Requirements Not Met by EPA as of April 2005

                                       8

                                       9

                                       9

                                       15

                                       16

                                       18

                                       21

                                     22 23

                                       26

                                       26

Table 10: Status of Requirements under Title IV of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 as of April 2005

Table 11: Length of Time by which Title IV Requirements with Statutory
Deadlines Were Met Late

                                    Contents

Figure Figure 1:	Comparison of Growth Areas and Emissions of Six Air
Pollutants in the United States 6

Abbreviations

EPA Environmental Protection Agency
MACT Maximum Achievable Control Technology
NAAQS National Ambient Air Quality Standard
SIP State Implementation Plan

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in
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separately.

A

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, D.C. 20548

May 27, 2005

The Honorable James M. Inhofe
Chairman
Committee on Environment and Public Works
United States Senate

The Honorable George V. Voinovich
Chairman
Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, and Nuclear Safety
Committee on Environment and Public Works
United States Senate

Exposure to air pollution is associated with numerous effects on human
health, including respiratory problems, heart and lung diseases resulting
in
hospitalization, and even premature death. While air quality in the United
States has steadily improved over the last few decades, more than a
hundred million Americans continue to live in communities where
pollution causes the air to be unhealthy at times, according to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Air Act, first passed in
1963, was last reauthorized and amended by the Congress in 1990, when
new programs were created and changes were made to the ways in which
air pollution is controlled. For example, the 1990 amendments created a
market-based "cap-and-trade" program to reduce the adverse effects of
acid rain deposition by capping emissions of sulfur dioxide nationwide and
allowing electric power plants the flexibility to either achieve emissions
reductions themselves or purchase allowances from plants that have
achieved greater reductions than required. In addition, the 1990
amendments required EPA to take numerous actions, such as creating
national technology-based standards for hazardous air pollutants;1 issuing
new regulations and guidance documents; undertaking research studies;
and preparing reports to the Congress.

1Maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards are
technology-based standards developed to control the emissions of certain
air toxics from numerous industry source categories and are based on
emissions levels that are already being achieved by the better-controlled
and lower-emitting sources in each category.

As we reported in 2000, the first six titles of the 1990 amendments
included hundreds of requirements for EPA and other parties-such as states
and local governments-to take steps that will ultimately reduce air
pollution.2 The amendments also established deadlines for many of these
requirements. We further reported that EPA had met many of the
requirements by February 2000, but that the agency had missed statutory
deadlines for most of the requirements that were met. Some of the
requirements EPA had not yet met had statutory deadlines after February
2000.

In recent years, EPA and the Congress have sought to achieve further
reductions in the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from
power plants in order to, among other things, help improve air quality in
communities that do not meet EPA's health-based standards for major
pollutants. In addition, EPA and the Congress have sought to reduce
mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time. In
fact, in March 2005, EPA issued two regulations-the Clean Air Interstate
Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule-addressing these pollutants. The
interstate rule permanently caps emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxides in 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia, and the mercury
rule sets nationwide limits on mercury emissions from coal-fired power
plants. In these rules, EPA uses the cap-and-trade approach to allow power
plants to either reduce emissions or buy allowances from other power
plants that have reduced their emissions below their limit. As you know,
certain proposals of the current session of Congress, such as the "Clear
Skies" bill, would similarly impose reductions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, and mercury, though they would do so on a nationwide basis for all
three pollutants.3 Some proponents of the legislative approach to
controlling emissions have argued that legislation that specified
emissions reduction levels may be subject to fewer legal challenges than
EPA-promulgated regulations developed under broader statutory authorities.
Along these lines, we note that on the day EPA issued the mercury rule,
attorneys general for nine states initiated a lawsuit challenging various
aspects of this rule.

2GAO, Air Pollution: Status of Implementation and Issues of the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990, GAO/RCED-00-72 (Washington, D.C.: April 17, 2000).

3Versions of the Clear Skies proposal are represented by bills S. 131 and
H.R. 227. Bills that differ, among other aspects, in that they would also
cap carbon dioxide, include S.150 and H.R. 1451.

In this context, you asked us to report on the current status of EPA's
implementation of requirements under Titles I, III, and IV of the Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990, which address national ambient (outdoor) air
quality standards, hazardous air pollutants, and acid deposition control,
respectively, and are the most relevant to the recent regulations and
proposed legislation addressing emissions of air pollutants by power
plants.

To obtain information on the status of EPA's implementation of Titles I,
III, and IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, we spoke with EPA
officials knowledgeable about EPA's workload related to these titles.
These officials verified a list of the requirements related to each title
for accuracy and completeness and provided documentation for any changes
made to the list. This list had originally been developed as evidence for
GAO's 2000 report on the status of EPA's implementation of the 1990
amendments.4 In addition, EPA officials provided explanations and
documentation for requirements that had not been met as of April 2005.
This report focuses on the extent to which EPA has met its requirements
with statutory deadlines prior to April 2005 and those without statutory
deadlines related to Titles I, III, and IV under the 1990 amendments, but
does not show the extent to which the states have implemented applicable
requirements. A more detailed description of our scope and methodology is
presented in appendix IV. We conducted our work from January 2005 to May
2005 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Results in Brief	As of April 2005, EPA had completed all but 48 of the 452
actions that the agency identified as required to meet the objectives of
Titles I, III, and IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The number,
scope, and complexity of the required actions under each of these titles
varied widely, and these differences, along with other challenges EPA
faced, led to varying timeliness in implementing these requirements. Some
of the major actions that EPA has taken related to these three titles
include reviewing state plans for achieving national health-and
welfare-based standards for six major air pollutants, developing
technology-based standards for 174 separate categories of sources of
hazardous air pollutants, and implementing a market-based cap-and-trade
program to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide from power plants. Of the
404 actions completed, 338 had

4See footnote 2.

statutory deadlines prior to April 2005, most of which EPA did not meet on
time. In fact, EPA completed 256 of these actions late: many (162) 2 years
or less after the required date, but others (94) more than 2 years after
their deadlines. Consequently, improvements in air quality associated with
some of these requirements may have been delayed. According to EPA
officials, the agency missed these deadlines for several reasons,
including an emphasis on stakeholders' review and involvement during
regulatory development; the necessity to set priorities among the actions
required of EPA resulting from the 1990 amendments; and competing demands
caused by the workload associated with EPA's response to lawsuits
challenging some of its rules. EPA officials explained that 45 of the
requirements with statutory deadlines were still unmet as of April 2005
because of competing priorities, among other factors. For example, 15
requirements for EPA to limit emissions of volatile organic compounds from
various products, such as cleaning products and insecticides, were not
completed because the agency shifted its priorities toward implementing
standards related to the emissions of hazardous air pollutants regulated
under Title III, according to EPA officials. In addition, EPA has not
implemented 19 actions required under Title III to assess whether EPA's
emissions standards for certain sources of hazardous air pollutants
appropriately protect public health. Any improvements in air quality that
would result from EPA meeting these requirements remain unrealized.

Background	The Clean Air Act, a comprehensive federal law that regulates
air pollution from stationary and mobile sources, was passed in 1963 to
improve and protect the quality of the nation's air. The act was
substantially overhauled in 1970 when the Congress required EPA to
establish national ambient air quality standards for pollutants at levels
that are necessary to protect public health with an adequate margin of
safety and to protect public welfare from adverse effects. EPA has set
such standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur
oxides, nitrogen dioxide, and lead. In addition, the act directed the
states to specify how they would achieve and maintain compliance with the
national standard for each pollutant. The Congress amended the act again
in 1977 and 1990. The 1977 amendments were passed primarily to set new
goals and dates for attaining the standards because many areas of the
country had failed to meet the deadlines set previously. The act was
amended again in 1990 when several new themes were incorporated into it,
including encouraging the use of market-based approaches to reduce
emissions, such as cap-and-trade programs.

The major provisions of the 1990 amendments are contained in the first six
titles. As requested, this report addresses EPA's actions related to
Titles I, III, and IV:5

o 	Title I establishes a detailed and graduated program for the attainment
and maintenance of the national ambient air quality standards;

o 	Title III expands and modifies regulations of hazardous air pollutant
emissions and establishes a list of 189 hazardous air pollutants to be
regulated;

o 	Title IV establishes the acid deposition control program to reduce the
adverse effects of acid rain by reducing the annual emissions of
pollutants that contribute to it.6

Although the Clean Air Act is a federal law, states and local governments
are responsible for carrying out certain portions of the statute. For
example, states are responsible for developing implementation plans that
describe how they will come into compliance with national standards set by
EPA. EPA must approve each state's plan, and if an implementation plan is
not acceptable, EPA may assume enforcement of the Clean Air Act in that
state. Once EPA sets a national standard, it is generally up to state and
local air pollution control agencies to enforce the standard, with
oversight from EPA. For example, state air pollution control agencies may
hold hearings on permit applications by power or chemical plants. States
may also fine companies for violating air pollution limits.

According to EPA, by many measures, the quality of the nation's air has
improved in recent years. Each year EPA estimates emissions that impact
the ambient concentrations of the six major air pollutants for which EPA
sets national ambient air quality standards. EPA uses these annual
emissions estimates as one indicator of the effectiveness of its air
programs. As figure 1 shows, according to EPA, between 1970 and 2004,

5Other titles contain provisions for controlling air pollution from motor
vehicles, engines, and their fuel (Title II), establishing a national
permit program to ensure compliance with all applicable requirements of
the act (Title V), and protecting the stratospheric ozone layer (Title
VI).

6Acid rain is the result of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides reacting in
the atmosphere with water and returning to earth as rain, fog, or snow.
Acid rain is also referred to as acid deposition, which is the process by
which acidic particles, gases, and precipitation leave the atmosphere.

gross domestic product, vehicle miles traveled, energy consumption, and
U.S. population all grew; during the same time period, however, total
emissions of the six principal air pollutants dropped by 54 percent.

Figure1: Comparison of Growth Areas and Emissions of Six AirPollutantsa in
the United States

Percentage

200 187

150

100

50

0

-50

-100

Vehicle miles traveled Energy consumption U.S. population

Aggregate emissions

Source: EPA.

aOzone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen
dioxide, and lead. Note: This figure represents data for the years 1970,
1980, 1990, and 1995 through 2004.

Despite this progress, large numbers of Americans continue to live in
communities where pollution sometimes exceeds federal air quality
standards for one or more of the six principal air pollutants. For
example, EPA reported in April 2004 that 159 million people lived in areas
of the United States where air pollution sometimes exceeds federal air
quality standards for ground-level ozone.7 According to EPA, exposure to
ozone has been linked to a number of adverse health effects, including
significant decreases in lung function; inflammation of the airways; and
increased respiratory symptoms, such as cough and pain when taking a deep
breath. Moreover, in 2003, 62 million people lived in counties where
monitors showed particle pollution levels higher than national particulate
matter standards, according to a December 2004 EPA report.8 Long-term
exposure to particle pollution is associated with problems such as
decreased lung function, chronic bronchitis, and premature death. Even
short-term exposure to particle pollution-measured in hours or days-is
associated with such effects as cardiac arrhythmias (heartbeat
irregularities), heart attacks, hospital admissions or emergency room
visits for heart or lung disease, and premature death.

EPA Has Implemented EPA identified 452 actions required to meet the
objectives of Titles I, III,

and IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. About half of theseAlmost
All Required required actions were included under Title III, which also
included the Actions, but Many largest number of requirements with
statutory deadlines. As shown in table Were Implemented 1, the 1990
amendments specified statutory deadlines for 338 of the Title I-, Late
III-, and IV-related requirements.

7EPA, The Ozone Report: Measuring Progress through 2003 (EPA 454/
K-04-001, April 2004). These "nonattainment" areas included areas that had
violated the ozone standard or contributed to violations of this standard.

8EPA, The Particle Pollution Report: Current Understanding of Air Quality
and Emissions through 2003 (EPA 454-R-04-002, December 2004).

Table1: Requirements with and without Statutory Deadlines as of April
2005, by Related Title

                     Type of requirement  Title I Title III  Title IV   Total 
             Requirements with statutory                               
                               deadlines       83        229        26    338 
          Requirements without statutory                               
                               deadlines       88          8        18    114 
                                   Total      171        237        44    452 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Note: This table does not include data on certain Title III
actions-residual risk and other reviews with deadlines after April 2005.

The numerous actions required to meet the objectives of Titles I, III, and
IV of the 1990 amendments vary in scope and complexity. For example, Title
I of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to periodically review and revise, as
appropriate, the national health-and welfare-based standards for air
quality. After EPA revises any one of these standards, states are
responsible for developing plans that detail how they will achieve the
revised standard. EPA then must review the individual state plans for each
standard and decide whether to approve them. While EPA must review and
approve all individual state plans submitted, each set of reviews is only
counted as one action. Other Title I requirements, on the other hand, only
require EPA to publish reports on air quality and emission trends. While
the reports may represent a significant amount of effort, the steps
required to implement national ambient air quality standards are
inherently more difficult to accomplish and often require parties
independent of EPA, such as state and local agencies, to pass legislation
and issue, adopt, and implement rules. Comparing the requirements among
titles also shows how they vary in complexity. For example, Title IV
required EPA to develop a new market-based cap and trade program to reduce
emissions of sulfur dioxide and a rate-based program to reduce emissions
of nitrogen oxides from power plants. While developing the cap and trade
program was a large undertaking on EPA's part, it involved regulating a
specified number of stationary sources in a single industry. In contrast,
under Title III, EPA is required to implement technology-based standards
for 174 separate categories of sources of hazardous air pollutants,
involving many industries.

As shown in table 2, a large portion of the requirements with statutory
deadlines related to Titles I, III, and IV were met late. That is, 256 of
the 338 requirements with statutory deadlines have been completed but were
late.

Of the 114 requirements without statutory deadlines, all but 3 of the
requirements have been completed.

Table2: Status of Title I-, III-, and IV-Related Requirements as of April
2005

Type of requirement Title I Title III Title IV Total Requirements with statutory
                                   deadlines

                                        Met on time   16     13     8   
                                           Met late   45    195    16     256 
                   Unmet - deadlines prior to April   22     21     2   
                                               2005                     
                                           Subtotal   83    229    26     338 
           Requirements without statutory deadlines                     
                                          Completed   85     8     18     111 
                                      Not completed   3      0      0   
                                           Subtotal   88     8     18     114 
                                              Total    171  237    44     452 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Note: This table does not include data on certain Title III
actions-residual risk and other reviews with deadlines after April 2005.

On average, EPA met the requirements related to Titles I, III, and IV
about 24, 25, and 15 months after their statutory deadlines, respectively.
Of the 256 requirements that EPA met late, 162 were met within 2 years of
their statutory deadline and 94 were completed more than 2 years after
their deadlines (see table 3). Consequently, improvements in air quality
associated with some of these requirements may have been delayed.

Table3: Length of Time by which EPA Missed Deadlines for Title I-, III-,
and IV-Related Requirements

              Length of time   Title I     Title III     Title IV       Total 
             Up to 12 months     24           41            10             75 
             13 to 24 months           9      75            3              87 
             25 to 36 months           4      50            2              56 
              Over 36 months           8      29            1              38 
                       Total     45           195           16            256 

                       Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

EPA officials cited several factors to explain why the agency missed
deadlines for so many requirements. Among these factors was an emphasis on
stakeholders' review and involvement during regulatory development, which
added to the time needed to issue regulations. For example, according to
an EPA official, the process to develop an early technology rule under
Title III involved protracted negotiations among EPA, industry groups, a
labor union, and environmental groups. The rule was finalized in October
1993, 10 months after its statutory deadline. In addition, EPA officials
mentioned the need to set priorities among the tremendous number of new
requirements for EPA resulting from the 1990 amendments, which meant that
some of these actions had to be delayed. Moreover, competing demands
caused by the workload associated with EPA's responses to lawsuits
challenging some of its rules caused additional delays. For example, the
time needed to respond to litigation of previous rules impinged on EPA
staff's ability to develop new rules, according to agency officials. In
addition, at the time of our 2000 report, EPA officials also attributed
delays to the emergence of new scientific information that led to major
Clean Air Act activities unforeseen by the 1990 amendments. For example,
the emergence of new scientific information regarding the importance of
regional ozone transport led to an extensive collaborative process between
states in the eastern half of the country to evaluate and address the
transport of ozone and its precursors.

As of April 2005, 45 of the requirements related to Titles I, III, and IV
with statutory deadlines that had passed have not been met. Thus, any
improvements in air quality that would result from EPA meeting these
requirements remain unrealized. The majority of the unmet requirements
related to Title I are activities involving promulgating regulations that
limit the emissions of volatile organic compounds from different groups of
consumer and commercial products. According to EPA officials, these rules
were never completed because EPA shifted its priorities toward issuing the
Title III technology-based standards. Additionally, EPA officials noted
that many states have implemented their own rules limiting emissions of
volatile organic compounds from these products, and these state rules are
achieving the level of emissions reductions that would be achieved by a
national rule passed by EPA. However, EPA is currently being sued because
it did not implement these rules by their statutory deadlines. According
to an EPA official, the agency and the litigant have agreed on the actions
to be taken to address the requirements, but they could not reach
agreement on completion dates. As a result, EPA is currently awaiting
court-issued compliance dates. In addition, 21 Title III requirements have

yet to be met.9 Most of these are "residual risk" reviews of
technology-based standards with deadlines prior to April 2005. That is,
within 8 years of setting each technology-based standard, EPA is required
to assess the remaining health risks (the residual risk) from each source
category to determine whether the standard appropriately protects public
health. Applying this "risk-based" approach, EPA must revise the standards
to make them more protective of health, if necessary. EPA completed its
first review and issued the first set of these risk-based amendments in
March 2005. Two actions required by Title IV have not been met, but,
according to EPA, the agency has decided not to pursue these actions
further. The requirements were to (1) promulgate an opt-in regulation for
process sources and (2) conduct a sulfur dioxide/nitrogen oxides
inter-pollutant trading study. According to EPA officials, the agency
decided not to promulgate the opt-in regulation because it determined that
the federal resources needed to develop the rule would be well in excess
of those available and the implementation of this provision would not
reduce overall emissions. EPA officials also said that the rule would not
be cost-effective due to these factors and the limited number of sources
expected to use the opt-in option. EPA officials said that the agency
decided not to pursue the sulfur dioxide/nitrogen oxides inter-pollutant
study because of the lack of a trading ratio that would capture the
complex environmental relationship between sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxides and because an inter-pollutant trading program would be complex and
unlikely to result in environmental benefits.

The list of specific actions EPA is required to take to meet the
objectives of Titles I and III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
includes requirements for periodic assessments of some of the standards
related to these titles. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required every 5
years to review the levels at which it has set national ambient air
quality standards to ensure that they are sufficiently protective of
public health and welfare. If EPA determines it is necessary to revise the
standard, the agency undertakes a rulemaking to do so. Each new national
ambient air quality standard, in turn, will trigger a number of subsequent
EPA actions under Title I, such as setting the boundaries of areas that do
not attain the standards and approving state plans to correct
nonattainment. As a result, the set of required actions related to Title I
tends to repeat over time. Title

9This number does not include those residual risk reviews that were not
yet due as of April 2005, nor does it include recurring reviews of MACT
standards to account for improvements in air pollution controls and
prevention, as discussed further in appendix II.

III also includes requirements for periodic assessments of its
technology-based standards. In addition to the residual risk assessments
discussed above, the Clean Air Act requires that EPA review the
technology-based standards every 8 years, and, if necessary, revise them
to account for improvements in air pollution controls and prevention. The
first round of these recurring reviews will occur concurrently with the
first round of residual risk assessments, according to an EPA official.
Moreover, EPA's workload related to its air programs may increase as a
result of recommendations for regulatory reform compiled by the Office of
Management and Budget. For example, in response to a recommendation to
permit the use of new technology to monitor leaks of volatile air
pollutants, EPA plans to propose a rule or guidance in March 2006.

Observations	The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 constituted a
significant overhaul of the Clean Air Act, and notable reductions in
emissions of air pollutants have been attained as a result of the many
actions these amendments required of EPA, states, and other parties.
Currently, EPA has completed most of the 452 actions required by the 1990
amendments related to Titles I, III, and IV. The number, scope, and
complexity of the required actions under each of these titles varied
widely, and these differences, along with other challenges EPA faced, led
to varying timeliness in implementing these requirements. Although EPA did
not meet the statutory deadlines in many cases, we believe that the
deadlines played an important role in EPA's implementation of the myriad
and diverse actions mandated in the 1990 amendments by providing a
structure to guide and support the agency's efforts to complete them.

As EPA and the Congress now move on to addressing the remaining air
pollution problems that pose health threats to our citizens, some points
from our 2000 report on the implementation of the 1990 amendments bear
repeating. First, some of the stakeholders we interviewed representing
environmental groups and state and local government agencies expressed a
preference for legislation and regulations that describe specific amounts
of emissions to be reduced, provide specific deadlines to be met, and
identify the sources to be regulated. Second, we, along with many of these
stakeholders, concluded in that report that the acid rain program under
Title IV could offer a worthwhile model for some other air quality
problems because it set emission-reduction goals and encouraged
market-based approaches, such as cap-and-trade programs, to attain these
goals. While EPA officials noted that emissions-trading programs may not
be suitable for all air pollutants, the agency has applied this approach
to several

pollutants since 2000. Specifically, EPA has issued final rules using
cap-and-trade programs to achieve further reductions in sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen oxides and to require reductions of mercury emissions for the
first time. However, whether EPA can apply the cap-and-trade model to
hazardous air pollutants such as mercury in the absence of express
statutory authority to do so is unclear, particularly in light of the
lawsuit that has been filed challenging EPA's March 2005 rule on mercury
emissions.

  Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided EPA with a draft of this report for its review and comment.
EPA generally agreed with the findings presented in the report and
provided supplemental information about the air quality, public health,
and environmental benefits associated with implementation of the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990 and comments related to its future challenges. The
agency also provided technical comments, which we incorporated where
appropriate. Appendix V contains the full text of the agency's comments
and our responses.

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of
this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from
the date of this letter. At that time, we will send copies of this report
to the appropriate congressional committees; the Administrator, EPA; and
other interested parties. We will also make copies available to others
upon request. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on
the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions, please call me at (202) 512-3841.
Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix VI.

John B. Stephenson Director, Natural Resources

and Environment

Appendix I

Title I

The Clean Air Act requires that all areas of the country meet national
ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), which are set by EPA at levels that
are expected to be protective of human health and the environment. NAAQS
have been established for six "criteria" pollutants: ozone, carbon
monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, and lead.
The act further specifies that EPA must assess the level at which the
standards are set every five years and revise them, if necessary.

To accomplish the objectives of Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of
1990, EPA identified 171 requirements.1 The specific requirements
contained in Title I direct EPA to perform a variety of activities, many
of which are related to implementing the NAAQS. Implementation of the
standards involves several stages, many requiring efforts by both EPA and
states. For example, once EPA has determined the appropriate air quality
level at which to set a standard, the agency then goes through a
designation process during which it identifies the areas of the country
that fail to meet the standard. After the nonattainment areas are
identified, states have primary responsibility for attaining and
maintaining the NAAQS. To do this, states develop state implementation
plans (SIPs) that specify the programs that states will develop to achieve
and maintain compliance with the standards. Once a state submits a SIP to
EPA, EPA is responsible for reviewing it and either approving or
disapproving the plan. To assist states in developing their plans, EPA
develops guidance documents that help states interpret the standards and
provide information on how to comply. For example, EPA established several
alternative control techniques documents for various sources that emit
nitrogen oxides. These documents provide suggestions for states and
industry on different techniques that can be used to reduce nitrogen
oxides emissions. In some circumstances, EPA may provide guidance to the
state and local air pollution control agencies through the issuance of EPA
guidance and/or policy memos. For example, although designating areas as
nonattainment or attainment is a complex and time-consuming process, EPA
issued guidance through policy memos on the factors and criteria EPA used
to make decisions for designating areas of the country as nonattainment.

1The number of requirements identified by EPA to meet the objectives of
Title I has increased since GAO conducted its previous study in 2000. This
increase is due to the recurring nature of Title I-related requirements
(for example, EPA must review each NAAQS every 5 years).

Appendix I Title I

As of April 2005, EPA had completed 146 of the requirements that the
agency must implement to meet the objectives of Title I. Sixty-one
requirements that EPA had met by April 2005 had statutory deadlines. As
table 4 shows, EPA met 16 of these requirements on time and missed the
deadlines for 45 of them. EPA also completed 85 of the 88 requirements
that did not have statutory deadlines.

Table4: Status of Requirements Related to Title I of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 as of April 2005

                  Requirements with statutory deadlines Number

Met on time

Met late

Unmet - deadlines prior to April 2005

Subtotal

                    Requirements without statutory deadlines

Completed

Not completed

Subtotal

                                   Total 171

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

On average, Title I-related requirements that were met late were completed
24 months after their statutory deadline. As table 5 shows, the length of
time by which requirements were met late for Title I varied. For example,
24 of the late requirements were met within 1 year of their statutory
deadline while 8 requirements were completed more than 3 years late.

Appendix I Title I

Table5: Length of Time by which Title I-Related Requirements with
Statutory Deadlines Were Met Late

Number of Length of time requirements

Up to 12 months

13 to 24 months

25 to 36 months

Over 36 months

Total

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

According to EPA, the agency missed deadlines for Title I-related
requirements for a number of reasons, such as (1) having to review a
larger quantity of scientific information than was available in the past;
(2) competing demands placed on agency staff who had to work concurrently
on more than one major rulemaking; and (3) engaging in longer, more
involved interagency review processes. According to agency officials, many
of the requirements that EPA completed late arose due to issues beyond
EPA's control. For example, in implementing the ozone and particulate
matter NAAQS, the emergence of new scientific information regarding the
importance of regional ozone transport led to an extensive collaborative
process between states in the eastern half of the country to evaluate and
address the transport of ozone and its precursors. This information was
then taken into account in the review and subsequent revision of the ozone
NAAQS in 1997. In addition, EPA was sued on both the 1997 ozone and
particulate matter standards, which delayed EPA's action to designate
areas as nonattainment. Moreover, the ongoing review of the particulate
matter NAAQS has been significantly extended as a consequence of the
unprecedented amount of new scientific research that has become available
since the last review, according to EPA.

Currently, EPA has not completed 22 requirements related to Title I with
statutory deadlines (see table 6). Fifteen of these requirements call for
rules involving different groups of consumer and commercial products, six
involve reviewing the NAAQS for the criteria pollutants, and one requires
EPA to finalize approving the state implementation plans for ozone and
carbon monoxide. The outstanding rules involving the consumer and
commercial products are to limit volatile organic compound emissions from
various products, such as cleaning products, personal care products, and a
variety of insecticides. The 1990 amendments specified that the rules

Appendix I Title I

be promulgated in four groups, based on a priority ranking established by
EPA that includes a number of factors, such as the quantity of emissions
from certain products. While EPA completed the first group of rules by
September 1998, the agency had not done anything further to implement the
remaining three groups of rules. According to EPA officials, no further
work had been done to implement the rules because EPA shifted its
priorities toward issuing the Title III technology-based standards.
Additionally, EPA officials noted that many states have implemented their
own rules limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds from these
products, and these state rules are achieving the level of emissions
reductions that would be achieved by a national rule passed by EPA. An EPA
official stated that a national rule would not provide much of an
additional benefit in the areas where emissions of volatile organic
compounds are a problem and that a national rule would be fought by
industry in states where emissions of volatile organic compounds are not a
problem. However, promulgating these rules is a requirement under the 1990
amendments, and according to EPA officials, the agency is currently being
sued by the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group, for not
promulgating them by their statutory deadline. EPA and the litigant have
agreed on the actions to be taken to address the requirements, however,
they could not reach agreement on the completion dates and are currently
awaiting court-issued compliance dates.

In addition, the other six unmet requirements related to Title I involve
potentially revising the NAAQS for the criteria pollutants. While EPA has
been involved in litigation regarding four of these standards, litigation
is still ongoing only regarding the lead NAAQS. EPA is being sued for not
reviewing since 1991 the lead NAAQS that was originally issued in October
1978. According to EPA officials, the agency did not undertake this review
because it shifted its focus to controlling other sources of lead, such as
drinking water and hazardous waste facilities. As shown in table 6, EPA
expects to complete the required reviews for four of the criteria
pollutants by 2009.

                               Appendix I Title I

Table6: Title I-Related Requirements with Statutory Deadlines Not Met by EPA as
                                 of April 2005

                                        Type of               
      Description of requirements     requirement   Statutory       Projected 
                                                     deadline completion date 
        Consumer and Commercial                   March 1999      Unknown     
         Products-Group 2-Flex        Regulation              
            package printing                                  
        Consumer and Commercial                   March 2001      Unknown     
        Products-Group 3-Aerosol      Regulation              
              spray paints                                    

                        Page 18 GAO-05-613 Clean Air Act
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Promulgate                            Promulgate                         Promulgate                        Promulgate                                                               Approve or                                 
 Consumer and                                                                                                                                                                                            film,                                                              Consumer and                                                                                                                                  light                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Promulgate                          decision on                            decision                           decision                          decision                             Promulgate                         disapprove                                 
  Commercial   Regulation March Unknown cleaning     Consumer and             March Unknown paneling     Consumer and             March Unknown Lithographic     Consumer and             March Unknown and foil     Consumer and             March Unknown Letterpress      Commercial   Regulation March Unknown parts     Consumer and             March Unknown furniture     Consumer and             March Unknown   duty       Consumer and             March Unknown dry-cleaning     Consumer and             March Unknown metal     Consumer and             March Unknown appliances     Consumer and             March Unknown     boat          Consumer and             March Unknown industrial     decision  Regulation July December particulate Regulation July September on sulfur  Regulation May  Unknown on carbon  Regulation August May      on     Regulation October Unknown  decision  Regulation 1996a June     state                 November 
Products-Group            2001          solvents      Commercial              2001                        Commercial              2001            printing        Commercial              2003          coatings      Commercial              2003           printing      Products-Group            2003                     Commercial              2003                         Commercial              2003           trucks       Commercial              2003                            Commercial              2003          parts      Commercial              2003                          Commercial              2003          manufacturing      Commercial              2003          adhesives      on ozone             2002     2007   matter               2002      2006   oxides              1991          monoxide              1999  2009  nitrogen              1991            on lead                    2009 implementation               1994b 
 3-Industrial                                       Products-Group                                      Products-Group                                          Products-Group                                      Products-Group                                           4-Plastic                                      Products-Group                                       Products-Group                          assembly    Products-Group                                          Products-Group                                   Products-Group                                        Products-Group                                           Products-Group                                          NAAQS                                NAAQS                                NAAQS                              NAAQS                            dioxide                                NAAQS                            plans for                        September
                                                     3-Flat wood   Regulation                                 3-       Regulation                                  4-Paper,    Regulation                                 4-       Regulation                                                                                  4-Metal     Regulation                              4-Auto and   Regulation                            4-Petroleum   Regulation                                   4-Misc     Regulation                           4-Large     Regulation                              4-Fiberglass  Regulation                                    4-Misc     Regulation                                                                                                                                                                              NAAQS                                                                    ozone      Regulation               2005

                              and carbon monoxide

                       Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Appendix I Title I

Note: Consumer and commercial product requirements have been issued either
as regulations or as guidelines in the past.

aEPA provided only the year of this statutory deadline.

bThere was more than one statutory deadline for this requirement. This
table presents the latest deadline.

In addition to the unmet requirements discussed above, EPA has three
requirements related to Title I without statutory deadlines that have not
yet been completed. The first is to develop a proposed particulate matter
implementation rule, which EPA expects to complete in summer 2005. The
second is the promulgation of methods for measurement of visible
emissions; EPA has not yet set a completion date for this action. The
third is the promulgation of phase II of the 8-hour ozone implementation
rule, expected in summer 2005.

Appendix II

Title III

Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 established a new
regulatory program to reduce the emissions of hazardous air pollutants,
specifying 189 air toxics whose emissions would be controlled under its
provisions. The list includes organic and inorganic chemicals, compounds
of various elements, and numerous other toxic substances that are
frequently emitted into the air. Title III was intended to reduce the
population's exposures to these pollutants, which can cause serious
adverse health effects such as cancer and reproductive dysfunction. After
identifying the pollutants to be regulated, Title III directs EPA to
impose technology-based standards, or Maximum Achievable Control
Technology (MACT) standards, on industry to reduce emissions. These
technologybased standards require the maximum degree of reduction in
emissions that EPA determines achievable for new and existing sources,
taking into consideration the cost of achieving such reduction, health and
environmental impacts, and energy requirements. The process for developing
each MACT standard may include surveying impacted industries, visiting
sites, testing emissions, and conducting public hearings. As a second
step, within 8 years after completing each technology-based standard, EPA
is to review the remaining risks to the public and, if necessary, issue
health-based amendments to each of the MACT rules to address such risks.
The first set of these "residual risk" standards was finalized in March
2005; residual risk standards for the remaining MACT rules have not been
completed. Finally, the Clean Air Act requires that EPA review and, if
necessary, revise the technology-based standards at least every 8 years,
to account for improvements in air pollution controls and prevention. The
first round of these recurring reviews will occur concurrently with the
first round of residual risk assessments, according to an EPA official.

EPA identified 237 requirements-either with statutory deadlines prior to
April 2005 or without statutory deadlines-that accomplish the objectives
of Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.1 Most of the
specific requirements under Title III direct EPA to promulgate MACT
standards for various sources of hazardous air pollutants, such as dry
cleaning facilities, petroleum refineries, and the printing and publishing
industry. Title III also requires EPA to issue a variety of studies and
reports to the Congress. For example, EPA has issued a series of studies
on the deposition of air

1The number of requirements identified by EPA to meet the objectives of
Title III has increased since GAO conducted its previous study in 2000.
This change in the number of requirements is due to the inclusion of
residual risk reviews, among other factors.

Appendix II Title III

pollutants to the Great Lakes and other bodies of water. In addition,
Title III also directs EPA to issue guidance on a number of subjects,
including, for example, guidance regarding state air toxics programs.

As of April 2005, EPA had met almost all of the requirements it identified
to fully implement the objectives of Title III of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990, as shown in table 7. EPA's most recent data show that
it has taken the required action to meet 216 of the 237 Title III
requirements, although 195 of these were met late, as shown in table 7.

Table7: Status of Requirements under Title III of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 as of April 2005

                  Requirements with statutory deadlines Number

Met on time

                                  Met late 195

Unmet

             Subtotal 229 Requirements without statutory deadlines

Completed

Not completed

                                   Total 237

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Notes: This table does not include data on residual risk reviews with
deadlines after April 2005. It also does not separately count recurring
reviews of MACT standards to account for improvements in air pollution
controls and prevention; the first round of these reviews will occur
concurrently with EPA's residual risk reviews.

As shown above, the vast majority of Title III requirements were met late.
On average, Title III requirements met late were completed 25 months after
their statutory deadline. However, the length of time by which
requirements were met late varied. As shown in table 8, 116 of the 195
requirements met late were completed within the first 2 years after the
statutory deadline, while 29 were not completed until more than 3 years
after the deadline.

Appendix II Title III

Table8: Length of Time by which Title III Requirements with Statutory
Deadlines Were Met Late

Number of Length of time requirements

Up to 12 months

13 to 24 months

25 to 36 months

Over 36 months

                                   Total 195

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

In explaining why requirements under Title III were met late, an EPA
official discussed several factors. For example, the official said that
the vast majority of the requirements involved the development of the MACT
standards, which requires a significant amount of time and effort. The
official also confirmed the reasons that requirements were met late
provided by EPA officials at the time of our 2000 report, which included
the need to prioritize, given resource limitations, the time needed to
develop the policy framework and infrastructure of the MACT program, and
the need for stakeholder participation in the rulemaking processes for
certain MACT standards. In addition, the EPA official pointed out that in
the past, litigation on issued rules has imposed additional demands on EPA
staff working to meet outstanding requirements, leading to delays.

There are 21 requirements under Title III that EPA had not met as of April
2005, most of which involve the residual risk reviews required after EPA
has set technology-based standards (see table 9). Specifically, EPA has
not yet reviewed residual risk for 19 MACT standards with deadlines prior
to April 2005. EPA completed its first review and issued the first set of
these risk-based amendments, for the coke oven batteries MACT standard, on
March 31, 2005.2 In addition to the residual risk reviews, EPA has not yet
completed its urban area source standards.3 The other unmet requirement
under Title III calls for EPA to promulgate standards for solid waste

2Coke ovens convert coal to coke which is used to produce iron at steel
mills and foundries. A coke oven battery consists of a group of ovens
connected by common walls.

3While EPA has completed area source standards for 15 of 70 categories of
sources that emit over 30 different hazardous air pollutants, 50 of the
remaining source categories are under litigation, and the remaining 5
categories have court-ordered deadlines for implementation.

                             Appendix II Title III

incinerators not previously regulated under the title. According to an EPA
official, the agency has focused its resources on regulating major solid
waste incinerators, while this requirement consists of a "catch-all" to
pick up remaining sources. Part of the challenge to completing this action
has involved identifying what these other sources might be, according to
the official.

         Table9: Title III Requirements Not Met by EPA as of April 2005

                                                  Statutory   
     Description of requirements        Type of   deadline          Projected 
                                    requirement               completion date 
      Promulgation of urban area    Regulation  November 2000     Unknown     
           source standards                                   
    Promulgation of standards for               November 2000  November 2005  
         "other" solid waste        Regulation                
             incinerators                                     

Residual risk review for perchlorethylene emissions from Regulation
September 2001 April 2006 dry cleaning facilities

Residual risk review for organic       Regulation April 2002 December 2006 
hazardous air pollutants                                     
from the synthetic organic chemical                          
manufacturing                                                
industry and other processes subject                         
to the negotiated                                            
regulation for equipment leaks                               

                        Page 23 GAO-05-613 Clean Air Act
Residual                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Residual                                                                                                              Residual                                                                                                                        Residual                                                                                                                                                          
risk                                                                                        Residual                               Residual                                                                                       risk                                                                Residual                                          risk                              Residual                                                                                      risk                                                                                                                                                              
review for                            Residual                             sterilization    risk review                            risk review                                                                                    review                               and decorative                 risk                                nylon         review                            risk                                                                                          review                                              Residual                                 (surface                                                             
industrial Regulation September March risk                  December March and              for gasoline Regulation December March for         Regulation December December                          December March operations    for                          Unknown chromium          anodizing    review for            March Unknown polyamides    for       Regulation June Unknown review for Regulation August Unknown Residual risk                      Unknown rework        for                           Unknown operations    risk review             December Unknown coating)      Residual risk            December Unknown              
process                    2002 2006  review for                2002 2006  fumigation       distribution                2002 2006  halogenated                2002     2006 Residual risk                2002 2006                chromium                             electroplating    tanks        epoxy                 2003          production    secondary            2003         petroleum              2003          review for                                 facilities    marine                                              for                         2003         operations    review for                   2003                      
cooling                               ethylene                             operations       (stage 1)                              solvent                                  review for                                            emissions                            and chromium                   resins                                            lead                              refineries                           aerospace                                                tank                                                shipbuilding                                           wood                                                   
towers                                oxide                                                                                        cleaning                                 magnetic tape                                         from hard            January                                        production                                        smelting                                                               manufacturing            September                       vessel              September                       and ship                                               furniture                                              
                                      commercial Regulation                                                                                                                 manufacturing Regulation                                        Regulation  2003                                          and non-   Regulation                                                                                                    and           Regulation      2003                       loading  Regulation      2003                       repair       Regulation                                manufacturing Regulation                  operations   

                             Appendix II Title III

                         (Continued From Previous Page)

Statutory Description of requirements Type of requirement deadline
Projected completion date

Residual risk review for printing and publishing industry Regulation May
2004 Unknown

Residual risk review for off-site waste and recovery Regulation July 2004
Unknown operations

Residual risk review for group I polymers and resins Regulation September
2004 Unknown

Residual risk review for group IV polymers and resins Regulation September
2004 Unknown

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Note: The Clean Air Act requires EPA to review MACT standards at least
every 8 years and revise them, if necessary, to account for improvements
in air pollution controls and prevention; the first round of these reviews
will occur concurrently with EPA's residual risk reviews.

In addition to the unmet requirements above, EPA has not yet completed
residual risk reviews for 76 MACT standards whose deadlines fall later
than April 2005. Because these residual risk reviews are not due until 8
years after the completion of each technology standard, some of these
residual risk reviews are not due until 2012.

Appendix III

Title IV

Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 established the acid
deposition control program. This program was designed to provide
environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions
of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the primary causes of acid rain.
The program provides an alternative to traditional "command and control"
regulatory approaches by using a market-based trading program that
allocates sulfur dioxide emission allowances to affected electric
utilities. The program creates a cost-effective way for utilities to
achieve their required sulfur dioxide emission reductions in the manner
that is most suitable to them. Utilities can choose to buy, sell, or bank
their allowances, as long as their annual emissions do not exceed the
amount of allowances (whether originally allocated to them or purchased)
that they hold at the end of the year.1 The nitrogen oxides program, on
the other hand, does not cap emissions of nitrogen oxides, nor does it
utilize an allowance trading system. Rather, this program, which focuses
on emissions of nitrogen oxides from coal-fired electric utility boilers,
provides flexibility for utilities in meeting emission limits by focusing
on the emission rate to be achieved and providing options for compliance.

To accomplish the objectives of Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments
of 1990, EPA identified 44 requirements. Many of the required activities
had to do with setting up the acid rain program-for example, conducting
allowance auctions, issuing allowances to utilities, and establishing an
allowance trading system. Additionally, EPA developed requirements for
utilities to continuously monitor their emission levels to properly
account for allowances.

As of April 2005, EPA had completed 42 of the 44 requirements to meet the
objectives of Title IV. There were 26 requirements in Title IV with
statutory deadlines-EPA met 8 of them on time and missed 16; 2 others were
unmet. There were 18 requirements that did not have statutory deadlines,
and EPA has completed all of them. (See table 10.)

1The total amount of allowances allocated for all sources comprise the
national cap for sulfur dioxide, and sources whose emissions exceed the
amount of allowances held forfeit allowances to cover the excess emissions
and must pay automatic financial penalties.

Appendix III Title IV

Table10: Status of Requirements under Title IV of the Clean Air Act
Amendmentsof 1990 as of April 2005

                  Requirements with statutory deadlines Number

Met on time

Met late

Unmet

Subtotal

                    Requirements without statutory deadlines

Completed

Not completed

Total number of requirements

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

Note: Based on additional information obtained for this report, we
determined that, compared with our 2000 report, one additional requirement
was met late.

On average, for the 16 requirements EPA met late, they were completed
within approximately 15 months of their deadlines. As shown in table 11,
10 were met within 1 year of their deadline and 1 was met more than 3
years late.

Table11: Length of Time by which Title IV Requirements with Statutory
Deadlines Were Met Late

Number of Length of time requirements

Up to 12 months

13 to 24 months

25 to 36 months

Over 36 months

                                    Total 16

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data.

According to EPA officials, the agency was late with some of the
requirements because interagency review and consultation with the Acid
Rain Advisory Committee added time to the process. Officials consider this
time spent worthwhile because it allowed for more stakeholder input into
the rulemaking process, which may have made the rules less controversial.
In fact, EPA officials stated that Title IV has been subjected to less
litigation

Appendix III Title IV

than other titles. According to the officials, litigation, however, did
cause a delay in the effective date of the first phase of the acid rain
nitrogen oxides reduction program by 1 year. EPA officials said the second
phase of this program affected approximately three times more units and
was implemented on schedule.

EPA officials stated that since implementation of the acid rain program,
changes have been necessary to keep the program up to date and successful.
For example, EPA revised the continuous emission-monitoring rule in 1999
and 2002. According to EPA, these updates were necessary because of
changes in the industry, such as technological advances and growth in the
number of sources.

Two Title IV requirements that EPA has not completed have statutory
deadlines that have passed. The two requirements are (1) promulgating the
opt-in regulation for process sources and (2) conducting a sulfur
dioxide/nitrogen oxides inter-pollutant trading study. After conducting
preliminary work for the first action, which was to have been completed by
May 1992, EPA determined that the federal resources required to accomplish
it were well in excess of those available. Additionally, according to an
EPA official, there was evidence of very limited use of the opt-in
election for other sources. Given these two factors, and EPA's view that
implementation of this provision would not reduce overall emissions, the
agency determined that it would not be cost-effective to promulgate the
regulation. Finally, EPA officials said that the agency decided not to
pursue the second action, which was to have been completed by January
1994, for three reasons. Specifically, according to EPA officials, (1)
they lacked a trading ratio that would capture the complex environmental
relationship between sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides; (2) if the ratio
issue could be resolved, an annual allowance system for nitrogen oxides
would need to be created with which to trade sulfur dioxide allowances;
and (3) it was not clear that implementing inter-pollutant trading would
result in a net environmental benefit as there are multiple and complex
health and environmental impacts of both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxides requiring a comprehensive analysis of impacts and
cost-effectiveness beyond available resources.

Appendix IV

                       Objective, Scope, and Methodology

The objective of this review was to determine the extent to which the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has completed the various actions
required to meet the objectives of Titles I, III, and IV of the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990. These titles, which respectively address national
ambient air quality standards, hazardous air pollutants, and acid
deposition control, are the most relevant to proposed legislation and
recently finalized regulations that address emissions of air pollutants by
power plants.

To obtain information on the status of EPA's implementation of
requirements related to Titles I, III, and IV of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990-both those with and without statutory deadlines- we
obtained lists of these requirements used for GAO's 2000 report, Air
Pollution: Status of Implementation and Issues of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 (GAO/RCED-00-72) and held discussions with EPA
officials knowledgeable about EPA's workload required to meet the
objectives of these titles. EPA officials verified the list of
requirements related to each of the three titles for accuracy and
completeness and provided documentation for any changes and additions made
to the list.1 To determine how late the requirements were met, we compared
the statutory deadline for each requirement to the month in which the
requirement was met. For regulations that appeared in the Federal
Register, for example, we considered the date the Federal Register issue
was published to be the date the requirement was met, as agreed with EPA
officials.2 In addition, we obtained explanations for why a large number
of requirements were met after their statutory deadlines from two
sources-our 2000 report and through discussions with EPA officials. For
requirements that had not been met as of April 2005, we obtained
additional information from EPA officials, including actions taken to
date.

1This report does not include some actions under titles I and III that EPA
officials identified after our work was completed, the agency had reviewed
and provided comments on a statement of facts, and EPA had provided
official agency comments on the draft report (see app. V). The actions EPA
identified, which they categorized as incomplete, involve periodic reviews
of new source performance standards and combustion new source performance
standards required by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

2While agency officials agreed to use the publication date in the Federal
Register as the date the various required actions were completed, EPA said
in its comments on the draft report that the Office of Air and Radiation
generally views the date a rule is signed and shared with the public as
the date the agency has met its statutory obligations. The agency
acknowledged that using the signature date would not change the report's
conclusions.

Appendix IV Objective, Scope, and Methodology

To ensure the reliability of the information provided by EPA, we requested
documentation for any changes EPA made to the list of requirements
developed for our previous report and checked the documentation to ensure
it matched the description of the requirement. In addition, we reviewed
the information EPA submitted to ensure there were no duplicate entries or
apparent inconsistencies; for any entries that appeared questionable, we
followed up with EPA officials and usually obtained additional
documentation. In certain cases, in particular with regard to Title III
requirements, we also independently verified the status of the
requirements. In all cases, EPA provided confirmation for the conclusions
we reached as well as, in some cases, additional documentation. We
determined that the data we obtained about the status of EPA's
implementation of required actions were sufficiently reliable for the
purposes of this report. We also reviewed the methodology of two EPA
studies that contained information about areas of the United States
impacted by ground-level ozone and particulate matter.3 We determined that
these studies were sufficiently methodologically sound to present their
results in this report as background information.

While this report addresses the extent to which EPA has met its
requirements related to Titles I, III, and IV of the 1990 amendments, it
does not address the status of requirements under other titles of the
amendments or show the extent to which states have implemented applicable
requirements. We conducted our work from January 2005 to May 2005 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

3EPA, The Ozone Report: Measuring Progress through 2003 (EPA 454/K-04-001,
April 2004); and EPA, The Particle Pollution Report: Current Understanding
of Air Quality and Emissions through 2003 (EPA 454-R-04-002, December
2004).

Appendix V

Comments from the Environmental Protection Agency

Note: GAO comments supplementing those in the report text appear at the
end of this appendix.

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

                                 See comment 1.

                                 See comment 2.

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

Appendix V
Comments from the Environmental
Protection Agency

                                 See comment 3.

                                 See comment 4.

                                   Appendix V
                        Comments from the Environmental
                               Protection Agency

      The following are GAO's comments on EPA's letter dated May 18, 2005.

  GAO Comments 1.

2.

3.

4.

As background, our report states that while air quality in the United
States has steadily improved over the last few decades, more than a
hundred million Americans continue to live in communities where pollution
causes the air to be unhealthy at times, according to EPA. EPA has
apparently interpreted this statement as implying that missed deadlines
described in the report are responsible for the scope of the current
particulate matter and ozone nonattainment problems. However, our report
does not make that link.

EPA provided us several examples of cases in which a delay in the
implementation of certain specific requirements did not lead to a delay in
improvements in air quality. While our draft report indicated that
requirements met late delayed improvements in air quality, we did not mean
to suggest that all late requirements delayed improvements in air quality.
Therefore, we revised the report to say that delays in implementation of
some of the requirements may have led to delays in improvements in air
quality.

During the course of our work, we discussed our proposed methodology with
EPA officials and they agreed with our plan to use the Federal Register
publication date as the completion date for relevant requirements. In
commenting on the draft report, however, the agency stated that its Office
of Air and Radiation generally considers that it has met its statutory
obligation to issue a rule on the date on which a final rule is signed and
disseminated to the public, which is likely to be earlier than the
publication of that rule in the Federal Register. Although we agree with
EPA's assessment that using the signature date, rather than the Federal
Register publication date, would not change the report's conclusions, we
revised the report to include EPA's comment.

We revised report language throughout to reflect the fact that certain
actions originally included as requirements of Title I of the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990 were established earlier but are related to these
amendments.

Appendix VI

                     GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts	John B. Stephenson, (202) 512-3841 ([email protected])
Christine Fishkin, (202) 512-6895 ([email protected])

Staff 	In addition to the individuals named above, Nancy Crothers,
Christine Houle, Karen Keegan, Judy Pagano, and Nico Sloss made key
contributions

  Acknowledgments to this report.

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