The changing requirements for air pollution control in the electrical and electronics industry

Federal and state air pollution control regulations will increasingly influence the electrical and electronics industry during coming years. During the past decade, most regulations have focused on major combustion sources (e.g., electric utilities and other major fuel consuming industries) and the large scale processing industries (e.g., petroleum, chemical processing, paper, primary metal production). While many large scale industry control issues, such as sulfur dioxide control to reduce acid rain, have not been settled, the regulatory focus is moving toward issues which will more directly affect the electrical and electronics industries. The actions and proposed actions of three major elements of government are discussed in this paper with respect to the impact such actions will have on the design and operation of facilities in the electrical and electronics industry. Specifically, 1) legislative activities in the U.S. Congress concerning compensation for victims of toxic pollution and reauthorization of the Clean Air Act; 2) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency´s proposed "Bubble Policy" and EPA´s schedule for defining New Source Performance Standards and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants; and 3) the progress made by individual state environmental control agencies in developing their own new source permitting process and control programs for toxic emissions.