On August 4, Congress culminated nearly three years of intense legislative effort by accepting a conference committee report¹ of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977. President Carter then signed the measure into law² on August 7, terming it "a sound and comprehensive program for achieving and preserving healthy air."³

Background

In 1975, in light of several years experience with their implementation, Congress began a reexamination of the Clean Air Act amendments passed in 1970. The need for substantive revision became clearer as the ambitious cleanup deadlines set in 1970 arrived and proved unrealistic in many respects. A number of important questions and issues concerning the statute's implementation had also arisen to which the original Act spoke ambiguously or not at all and on which more explicit congressional guidance was therefore required. Amendment of the 1970 Act was nearly accomplished in 1976, but it failed on the last day of the congressional session because of a determined filibuster by opponents in the Senate. The battle over the shape of the amendments resumed with even more intensity this year and continued until the last points of dispute were resolved at a marathon late night conference meeting shortly before Congress adjourned for its August recess.