Regional Conflict and the Clean Air Act

Economists argue that efficiency criteria should dominate choice in government regulation, but distributional concerns influence policy. The political process determined that high-sulfur coal regions had been hurt by the Clean Air Act and sought to change these effects in the 1977 Amendment to the Act While other amendments combined promises of environmental change with the attempt to help areas perceived to be hurt by the original Act, one provision, the "local coal amendment" concentrated solely on economic consequences and allowed market intervention for equity concerns. The analysis suggests that the most important determinant of votes on the local coal amendment was the sulfur content of coal deposits in the home state of the Senators. Since most states do not have coal deposits, the votes of Senators from noncoal states became crucial for ultimate passage of the amendment. The emphasis of the analysis was on coalition building efforts.