Clean Coal/Dirty Air: Or How the Clean Air ACT Became a Multibillion-Dollar Bail-Out for High-Sulfur Coal Producers

A classic in the field, Ackerman and Hassler examine the political context and policy incentives of the 1970 Clean Air Act. This isn't a study about SO2 pollution as much as a study about how and why policy decisions were made. It's particularly helpful in understanding why Eastern coal producing states, in an effort to prevent the wholesale rush to Western coal, pushed scrubbers as "the" solution to acid rain. Though there is some of the righteous indignation that seemed to characterize early 1980 policy studies, the book is useful as: a cautionary tale of the distortions caused by command-and-control solutions, a look at how conflicting legislative goals are reconciled, and a necessary background to understanding why the 1990 Clean Air Act turned to tradable permits.