Beyond any new and impending regulations, there are two that have been in
place for years and another that has just come into effect — the Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air and Water Acts, and Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment (WEEE) — by whose laws your business must abide,
regardless of whether you intend to go green.EPA Clean Air Act................................................................................
The federal 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) was created by the EPA to help control
and reduce smog and air pollution in the United States. It derives from the
Clean Air Act in 1963, the Clean Air Act Amendment in 1966, the Clean Air Act
Extension in 1970, and the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1977. Although the
whole of America is accountable to CAA legislation, the states nevertheless
contribute to ensuring that its requirements are met. State air pollution
agencies, for example, conduct hearings on permit applications from power
or chemical plants and fine companies for violating air pollution limits.Corollaries to the CAA in other countries include the Clean Air Act 1956 in the
U,K. and a similar Clean Air Act in Canada. In European Union, it is called
Clean Air for Europe (CAFÉ).The EPA wields the CAA to limit the amount of pollutants that can be in the
air in the United States at any given time. According to CAA stipulations,
states are not allowed to create weaker pollution controls than those the Act
has set for the country.Because pollution control problems often require special knowledge of local
industries, geography, housing patterns, and the like, the EPA relies on states
to create state implementation plans that outline the regulations they will use
to reduce their pollution. All states must conduct hearings wherein the public
can comment on and contribute to the development of implementation plans.
Should the EPA disapprove of a state’s plan, it can take steps to enforce por-
tions of the CAA that they deem the state to have neglected.Chapter 11: Making Your Business Processes Environmentally Friendly 203
Power to the states!
The legal ramifications of climate change were
finally acknowledged in the Supreme Court
decision for Massachusetts, et al. v. EPA, et al.
At long last, the state of Massachusetts was
granted the right to sue the United States
because of the injury it sustained from rising
sea levels and other climate-related impacts.
This granting of standing to sue rivals the impor-
tance of the Court’s proclamation that the EPA
has the authority to monitor greenhouse gases
as an “air pollutant” under Title II of the Clean
Air Act.