Richard Revesz’s and Jack Lienke’s new book, Struggling for Air, has attracted considerable attention: for instance, it was the subject of a symposium in this publication. I want to build on that discussion here, taking a different perspective from any expressed in the symposium. Revesz and Lienke argue that there was a tragic flaw in the CAA Amendments of 1970: the “grandfathering” of existing electricity generating units by exempting them from national emissions standards. This, they argue, encouraged pre-1970 units to continue to run without sufficient pollution controls and to injure health and the environment. The book is incisive and a good read; everyone concerned with environmental issues should study it. But I want to question the authors’ account of why “grandfathering” came to be, as well as their assumption that trying to regulate power plants as they wished would have proven effective.