Listening to the popular media it would be easy to conclude that environmental quality in our nation is getting worse by the day. It may come as a surprise that many indicators show the opposite is true. No area of environmental quality has seen better improvement than the air we breathe. Compared to conditions half a century ago, the air today is much healthier and contains far fewer pollutants. In fact, as the chart below shows, air quality in the state’s largest urban area now meets or exceeds most federal standards for health and cleanliness.

Success in lowering the risk of air pollution helps illustrate the effectiveness of public and private pollution control initiatives. Significant reductions in emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities have led the way in improving our nation’s environmental quality. But the effort to modernize how industrial polluters are regulated faces strong opposition from some within the environmental community.

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