Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act

View the EPA’s Second Prospective Study on the Clean Air Act here (EPA.gov).

Highlights:

The benefits of the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990 reach approximately $2 trillion in 2020.

In 2020, the CAA Amendments will prevent over 230,000 early deaths.

In 2010 alone, the reductions in fine particle and ozone pollution from the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments prevented more than:

  • 160,000 cases of premature mortality
  • 130,000 heart attacks
  • 13 million lost work days
  • 1.7 million asthma attacks

In 2020, the study projects benefits will be even greater, preventing more than:

  • 230,000 cases of premature mortality
  • 200,000 heart attacks
  • 17 million lost work days
  • 2.4 million asthma attacks

The benefits of the Clean Air Act Amendments exceed the costs by a factor of more than 30 to one.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency