ABSTRACT
Congress created a multifaceted system of regulation in the Clean Air Act. There are provisions dealing with both stationary sources and mobile sources of air pollution. The Act assigns designated responsibilities and powers to the federal government and other responsibilities to the state governments. Among the typical stationary sources of air pollution are power plant and factory smokestacks, industrial producers of gases and dusts, coke ovens, incinerators and garbage-burning dumps. The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for ambient air quality. EPA has no mandatory duty under the Act to issue the regulations that plaintiffs seek. The legislative history of the 1977 Amendments is replete with indications that Congress acknowledged the severity of oxidant nonattainment problems and of the oxidant transport phenomenon. Congress initially responded to the problem of air pollution by offering encouragement and assistance to the States.
