Mr. President, we recommend altering the geographic approach to managing air quality in this country to match the realities of long-range transport of air pollution. It makes little sense to have localities responsible for attaining air quality standards when on average about 75 percent of the problem is not of their own making.

Either this responsibility should shift to new regional air quality management institutions, backed by EPA, with ultimate responsibilities still lodged within the states, or it should be lodged at the federal level, with a dramatic reduction in state responsibilities. We recommend that a presidential commission be set up to consider these two quite different options for improving the management of our nation's air quality.

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Alan J. Krupnick analyzes the benefits, costs, and design of air pollution policies and also focuses on valuation of health and ecological improvements. He is former senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. He is the author of Valuing Health Outcomes: Policy Choices and Technical Issues.
Chapter 12. Focus on Particulates More Than Smog
Chapter 17. Performance Standards for Food Safety

Jhih-Shyang Shih engages in quantitative analysis of environmental management and resource policy. He models air quality, risk, surface water, and solid waste management, and studies costs of environmental protection, technology adoption, and renewable energy.

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