The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in every state has a program that focuses on attaining and maintaining air quality standards with the finality of reducing the factors that could potentially affect a person’s health. Oregon has adopted regulations from neighboring states such as California, as they have had more experience and knowledge in alternative ways for reducing air pollutants. Part of that transition has been to develop and enforce Low Emission Vehicle Regulations. A likely scenario for Oregon suggests that electric vehicles or plug in hybrids vehicles could total 13 percent by 2025.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set health based air quality standards, or criteria, for six pollutants …show more content…
Even though hundreds of toxic pollutants exist, Congress has listed 188 of them to monitor as part of the federal Clean Air Act. In Oregon, EPA identified 14 toxic air pollutants that exceed levels of concern and that is possible to monitor (Oregon DEQ, 2015):
Acetaldehyde 1,3-Butadiene Naphtalene
Acrolein Chromium Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Arsenic Diesel matter Perchloroethylene
Benzene Methylene chloride Trichloroethylene Essentially three steps are involved in a cost benefit analysis (Hyman, 2014):
1. Enumerate all costs and benefits of the proposed project
A) Costs.
• Hiring two employees to specifically deal with Low Emission Vehicle Program inquiries from the public and co-workers; estimating that in 3 years the program could be fully operational.
• New forms to register for the program
• New building in Astoria to establish a clean air station.
• New equipment
• Land
• Utilities
• Shop Supplies
• Office Supplies
• 3 technicians
B) Direct benefits.
• The direct benefit in this case will be considered to be the reduction of pollutants in the air we breathe, making us less vulnerable to infections or diseases related to