Transboundary Air Pollution

Abstract

The 1984 Commission proposal to reduce acid rain emissions by regulating large combustion plants (LCPs) was the most costly and controversial EC environmental regulatory proposal up to that time. The heated debate reflected both the high cost and the intensity of feeling about the environmental problem. In Scandinavia, Germany, and other European countries, highly prized freshwater lakes, streams, forests and medieval cathedrals all revealed acid damage (Brodin and Kuylenstierna, 1992, pp. 332–3). With this damage alarming the general public, many European policy-makers accorded acid rain a high place on national agenda. Operating in an area of considerable scientific uncertainty, policy-makers concentrated on the long-range transport of certain air emissions, particularly sulfur oxides (SO_x) and nitrous oxides (NO_x). Due to special political and scientific circumstances, the policy debate placed particular blame on the emissions of large combustion plants operated by heavy industry and power utilities, which are the specific EC focus of this chapter.