From Climate Progress: http://climateprogress.org/2010/12/03/1990-clean-air-act-amendments-benefits-costs-lives-saved/#more-37911
Benefits exceeded costs by 30-to-1, with 160,000 lives saved
December 3, 2010
This repost from EDF’s Steve Cochran is part of CP’s series on EPA’s highly cost-effective, science-based efforts to preserve clean air, clean water, and a livable climate for our kids.
There they go again. Economic meltdown. Higher consumer costs. Massive job losses. These are among the predictions of doom surrounding EPA’s current and forthcoming round of clean air protections. If they sound familiar, they should. Time and again, from the enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970 to today, prophets of doom have predicted that disastrous consequences would flow from cleaning the air we all breathe. And time and again, those dire predictions have been wrong. The Clean Air Act has protected American health and our environment for decades while our economy has grown. It is a legislative success story that continues today.
This series will examine what the naysayers have said about Clean Air Act protections and how those wild predictions compare to the statute’s actual record of protecting Americans from toxic air pollution and its devastating effects on human health and the environment. We start with the acid rain program in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
Continue reading: http://climateprogress.org/2010/12/03/1990-clean-air-act-amendments-benefits-costs-lives-saved/#more-37911
