This approach changed somewhat after the resig-
nation of Gorsuch as head of the EPA in 1982 and
her replacement by William Ruckelshaus. For exam-
ple, in September, 1983, Ruckelshaus proposed new
regulations to tax SO 2 emissions from power plants
in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia
to reduce SO 2 emissions by 3.5 million tons. The pro-
posal was defeated in the Cabinet Council on Natu-
ral Resources, as Watt, Energy Secretary Donald
Hodel, and Office of Management and Budget Di-
rector David Stockman opposed the regulation as
producing small environmental benefits at great
cost. Lee Thomas, who succeeded Ruckelshaus in
the second Reagan administration, also did more to
enforce air-quality regulations.
George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Reagan after
winning the election of 1988, portrayed himself
as an environmentally friendly president. William
Reilly, his appointee as head of the EPA, adopted a
pro-environment stance that would soon be tested.
Revisions of the Clean Air Act had been under con-
sideration for more than a decade. During the
1980’s, the inability of the government to deal with
acid rain had become a symbol of the environmen-
tal failure of the Reagan administration. A set of
amendments to the Clean Air Act was passed in 1990
specifically addressing SO 2 , as well as other long-
standing problems of air pollution in urban areas.
Impact Air pollution’s pervasive and harmful na-
ture was recognized increasingly in the 1980’s, as pol-
lution became both more intense and more wide-
spread. Alongside this recognition, however, the belief
persisted that strong regulations and enforcement
would improve air quality only at the expense of the
United States’ corporate bottom line. Thus, neither
the Reagan nor the Bush administration did much
to clean up the air or to prevent its further pollution.
Air pollution remained an unresolved environmental
problem at the end of the decade.
Further Reading
Bryner, Gary C.Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air
Act and Its Implementation.Washington, D.C.: CQ
Press, 1995. Details the enforcement of the Clean
Air Act over time.
Freedman, Barry D.Regulation in the Reagan-Bush
Era: The Eruption of Presidential Influence. Pitts-
burgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995.
Provides an analysis of the Reagan-Bush environ-
mental record.
Peirce, J. Jeffrey, Ruth F. Weiner, and P. Aarne Vesi-
lind.Environmental Pollution and Control. 4th ed.
Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998. Several
chapters detail the science of air pollution.
Turco, Richard P.Earth Under Siege. New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1997. Excellent, compre-
hensible introduction to the topic of air pollu-
tion.
John M. TheilmannSee also Environmental movement; Ozone hole;
Reagan, Ronald; Water pollution; Watt, James G.Air traffic controllers’ strike
The Event An unlawful strike by government
employees
Date August 3, 1981
Almost thirteen thousand air traffic controllers went on
strike, violating the terms of their contracts as well as Civil
Service laws. When more than eleven thousand of them re-
fused a presidential ultimatum to return to work, the strik-
ing workers were fired and replaced. The president’s strategy
weakened other government-employee unions and contrib-
uted to the weakening of organized labor in general during
the 1980’s.
Collective bargaining between the Professional Air
Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began in
February, 1981, shortly after President Ronald Rea-
gan was inaugurated. At issue were three major con-
cerns: high-stress working conditions, wages, and re-
tirement benefits. In 1946, Congress had banned
strikes by federal employees, and in 1955 it had
passed laws that made such strikes a crime punish-
able by fine or one year in prison. However, in 1968,
1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, and 1978, PATCO had cir-
cumvented the law and pressured the government
by conducting slowdowns—in which workers inten-
tionally decreased their efficiency—and sick-outs—
in which a majority of workers simultaneously called
in sick). This strategy had secured for the union’s
members increased pay and benefits, ongoing train-
ing, and new equipment.
In early negotiations in 1981, PATCO president
Robert E. Poli presented a list of ninety-six demands
that collectively would have cost the government
more than $1 billion to satisfy. FAA administratorThe Eighties in America Air traffic controllers’ strike 47