The US Clean Air Act, passed in 1970 with strong bipartisan support, was the first environmental law to give the federal government a serious regulatory role, established the architecture of the US air pollution control system, and became a model for subsequent environmental laws in the United States and globally. We outline the act's key provisions, as well as the main changes Congress has made to it over time. We assess the evolution of air pollution control policy under the Clean Air Act, with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used. We provide a generic assessment of the major types of policy instruments, and we trace and assess the historical evolution of the Environmental Protection Agency's policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s. Over the past 50 years, air pollution regulation has gradually become more complex, and over the past 20 years, policy debates have become increasingly partisan and polarized, to the point that it has become impossible to amend the act or pass other legislation to address the new threat of climate change.

中文翻译：

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《清洁空气法》下的政策演变

在两党的大力支持下于1970年通过的《美国清洁空气法案》是赋予联邦政府严格监管角色的第一部环境法，确立了美国空气污染控制系统的体系结构，并成为随后的环境法典范本。美国和全球。我们概述了该法案的主要规定，以及随着时间的推移国会对其进行的主要更改。我们根据《清洁空气法》评估了空气污染控制政策的演变，尤其关注所使用的政策工具的类型。我们对主要类型的政策工具进行了一般性评估，并跟踪和评估了环境保护局政策工具使用的历史演变，尤其着重于基于市场的政策工具的使用增加，从1970年代开始，到1990年代达到顶峰。在过去的50年中，空气污染监管逐渐变得更加复杂，并且在过去的20年中，政策辩论变得越来越有党派和两极分化，以至于无法修改该法案或通过其他立法来解决这一问题。气候变化的新威胁。