Air Quality by Design Harnessing the Clean Air Act to Manage Metropolitan Growth

This article examines the gradual emergence of an integrated technological and behavioral approach to mobile source emissions control in the United States. Confronted with the persistence of urban air quality problems in regions experiencing rapid population growth and decentralization, the Environmental Protection Agency recently developed a set of guidelines to permit metropolitan regions to receive air quality "credit" for the adoption of "smart growth" land use practices. Following an examination of the predominant emissions control philosophy that has guided federal air quality management for more than thirty years, the author outlines three stages in the existing air quality planning process through which metropolitan planning organizations may receive credit for land use- based control strategies and recommends a set of institutional changes needed to foster the development of an integrated land use, transportation, and air quality management framework.