Milestone: A bipartisan victory for clean air

Sweeping impact, rare support

On Nov. 15, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law a new and improved federal Clean Air Act that would, in the decades to come, make an enormous positive impact on the quality of the air we breathe. Almost as remarkable from today’s perspective, the law also enjoyed a wide swath of bipartisan support.

U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs contributed to both the strength of the clean air provisions and the bill’s broad support.

The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments strengthened the law’s enforcement and addressed four specific problems: acid rain, urban air pollution, toxic air emissions and stratospheric ozone depletion. In just a few decades, the results would become clear as day:

• Carbon monoxide pollution plummeted by more than 75%

• Nitrogen dioxide levels went down at least 50%

• Particulate pollution levels dropped at least 40%

• Toxic pollutants such as benzene and mercury declined more than two-thirds

• Lead levels in outdoor air decreased more than 99%.

• One of the main causes of acid rain, sulfur dioxide pollution from power plants, declined more than 80%

Far more importantly, these numbers translated into lives saved and health improved. Together, the original Clean Air Act and the 1990 amendments would go on to help prevent 400,000 premature deaths and hundreds of millions of cases of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Between 1990 and 2010, deaths from air pollution in the U.S. dropped nearly 50%.

Clean air and health came first

The changes to the law that made these results possible were the subject of heated political debate. Champions of a stronger Clean Air Act, such as U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Gerry Sikorski (Minn.), negotiated the law’s final provisions with other members of Congress, the White House, industry lobbyists and environmental advocates. As they did so, Gene Karpinski and other PIRG staff persistently reminded all parties to put clean air and public health first.

In October 1990, for example, Gene held congressional feet to the fire when officials agreed to water down some elements of the amendment, telling a New York Times reporter, “The clean air bill went into the back rooms and it looks like a dirty air bill is coming out.”

Our advocacy was also bolstered by our action and progress at the state level, including on acid rain. Back in the 1980s, acid rain was stripping some forests bare and leaving many lakes and rivers lifeless. In response, in 1982 Minnesota PIRG spearheaded passage of the Acid Deposition Act, the nation’s first law targeting acid rain. In 1985 Massachusetts lawmakers enacted the Acid Rain Cap-and-Cut Law, after MASSPIRG gathered enough voter signatures to qualify the issue for the statewide ballot. These state laws provided blueprints for the 1990 federal provisions on acid rain, which capped sulfur dioxide emissions and allowed industries to trade emission cut credits.

Near 90% majorities in Senate and House

Despite the usual jockeying for partisan advantage during the bill’s advance through Congress, the floor votes in the U.S. Senate and House were overwhelming: 89 to 11 in the Senate and 401 to 21 in the House.

The lopsided votes were attributable to multiple factors including:

• a public outpouring of support and action on the environment that accompanied the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in April 1990,

• a level of partisan competition that seems quaint by today’s standards, and

• hundreds of thousands of petition signatures, postcards, letters, letters to the editor, and phone calls (all of this in the pre-digital age, mind you), mobilized in large part by PIRG Student chapters, PIRG canvassers and PIRG organizers.

In the end, the vote came down to a simple calculation for senators and representatives of both parties. As Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) summed it up, “I had to choose between cleaner air and the status quo. I chose cleaner air.”

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on clean air below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s clean air milestones.