- To combat pollution in the United States, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to establish and enforce air pollution standards and to set emission standards for new factories and extremely hazardous industrial pollutants. Such as power plants and incinerators, having to install smokestack scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, and other filters.
- Auto manufacturers were mandated to install exhaust controls or develop less polluting engines, also known as catalytic converters.
- In 1990 when the act was reauthorized it Chicago to meet existing smog reduction regulations by the year 2005. The 1990 amendments also expanded the scope and strength of the regulations for controlling industrial pollution. The result has been limited progress in reducing the quantities of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, particulate matter, and lead in the air. The EPA also regulated hazardous air pollutants, which included mercury, beryllium, asbestos, vinylchloride, benzene, radioactive substances, and inorganic arsenic.
- Other proposed solutions include raising electricity and gasoline rates to better reflect environmental costs and to discourage waste and inefficiency, and mechanical controls on coal-fired utility plants.