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Cleaner Air

“You know, a lot of times I talk about the fact that we can grow our economy and protect our environment. We’ve shown over the last decades that that is possible. Our economy has grown 164 percent in three decades. According to the EPA report released yesterday, air pollution from six major pollutants is down by 48 percent during that time. It’s possible to grow the economy and protect the air. We’re proving it here in America.”

President George W. Bush
Remarks on Clear Skies Legislation
East Garden. September 16, 2003

This year, States must begin to develop plans to comply with new health-based air quality standards. To help meet that challenge, President Bush is offering a smarter path by introducing his Clear Skies legislation and implementing air quality policies such as the Clean Air Rules of 2004, which provide the cleanest air possible with the best technology available while maintaining economic growth. This smarter approach contrasts with costly command-and-control regulations that discourage investment in new technology but encourage prolonged litigation.

Air quality in the United States has been steadily improving over the last 30 years, and through cooperation with the private sector, the Administration is working to significantly expand on those improvements. More recently, EPA estimates that from 2000 to 2003, emissions of the six major air pollutants substantially decreased, as demonstrated in the tables below (2003 data is preliminary).

Emission Reductions from All Sources

Air Pollutant	2000	2003 (preliminary)	% Reduced
Carbon Monoxide (CO)	102 million tons	94 million tons	8 percent
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)	23 million tons	21 million tons	9 percent
Particulate Matter (PM 10)	2 million tons	2 million tons	-
Particulate Matter (PM 2.5)	2 million tons	2 million tons	-
Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 )	16 million tons	16 million tons	-
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)	17 million tons	15 million tons	12 percent
Totals	162 million tons	150 million tons	7 percent

Reductions in NOx and SO 2 Emissions from Power Plants

Air Pollutant

2000

2003

% Reduced

Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)

5.1 million tons

4.2 million tons

18 percent

Sulfur Dioxide (SO 2 )

11.2 million tons

10.6 million tons

5 percent

Totals

16.3 million tons

14.8 million tons

9 percent

No U.S. counties exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for NO2, SO2 or carbon monoxide.

A blend of market-based approaches and investment in new technologies represents the best approach to reducing air pollution even further and faster. The President is pursuing that balance through his market-based Clear Skies Initiative, which will place a mandatory cap on the three major power plant pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury), by imposing tough standards on diesel-emissions, and by investing in hydrogen fuel, a domestic energy source that is pollution-free, and clean coal technologies. President Bush’s clean air policies will prove that substantial reductions in air pollution can be made without jeopardizing energy reliability or the U.S. economy.