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Did you know that the United States leads the world in air quality?
As I walk down Capitol Halls and meet with members of Congress and their staff about the energy policies that help and hinder the future of our country, I am shocked to see how many people do not know and can not believe this. made.
Over the past 50 years, harmful air pollution known as particulates has collapsed. Toxic pollutants such as lead, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide are now virtually non-existent in our air. Ozone is dropping dramatically. We are the only populous country in the world to meet the World Health Organization standards for fine particles by far. In fact, our standards are among the strictest in the world.
These dramatic gains in air quality have occurred in tandem with population growth, energy consumption, vehicle kilometers traveled and gross domestic product.
Our ongoing national conversation and increasingly heavy about the environment too often misses the fact that reliable and affordable energy is the essential catalyst of innovation.
Countries like Germany have tried to impose themselves in the field of the environment by imposing the shift to wind and solar energy before markets and technology are ready. This has led to an increase in electricity costs of 46%, massive subsidies for coal-fired power plants to run on back-up power, and reliance on imported US wood for cooking and cooking. heating – with little or no effect on the environment.
Meanwhile, freed from the burden of strict and stifling regulations, Americans have done what we've always done best: roll up our sleeves and start working.
Take the catalytic converter, which turns the toxic exhaust gases into harmless gases, such as water vapor, catalyzing a chemical reaction. It was developed in the 1950s by Eugene Houdry, a French scientist who became an American citizen in 1942, for use in gasoline engines. It was popularized in the 1970s as an effective way to comply with the Clean Air Act standards.
According to the EPA, which calls the catalytic converter "one of the greatest environmental inventions of all time", cars, SUVs, trucks and modern buses are 98-99% cleaner today. As it was 50 years ago. The pollutants from the exhaust pipes have almost been eliminated, which means that our cities are no longer stifled by smog. We are free to take advantage of the independence, mobility and economic opportunities offered by personal vehicles without sacrificing the quality of the environment.
It's a good old American ingenuity at work. It continues to operate today with technologies such as baghouse dust collectors to eliminate pollution from commercial facilities and the production of renewable natural gas from methane captured in landfills or sewage treatment plants. The unlimited potential of the free market and innovation, not the mandates and taxes of governments, has led our economy and our environment to spectacular success.
All this is made possible by access to abundant, reliable and affordable energy. Our energy resources have the power to improve our quality of life, fuel our economies and lift people out of poverty, at home and abroad, while improving the environment. Nothing is more powerful to make the human being prosper than energy.
Today, most of America's air pollution is not attributable to us. It is blown on the west coast from Asia. More stringent air quality regulations will do much more to export jobs outside of the United States than to make our air more breathable.
On the other hand, the more our energy and manufacturing sectors are allowed to prosper, the more we can export to our friends and allies around the world, which means that the more we can export our environmental quality .
On this Earth Day, we should celebrate the radical achievements of our country by relying on our abundant energy resources and giving the free market the power to generate more environmental and economic progress for future generations.
Jason Isaac is a senior executive and a distinguished member of Life: Powered, a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Previously, he served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives..
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