492
Opinion of Breyer, J.
v. EPA, 427 U. S. 246, 257 (1976) (emphasis added). And the Court added that the 1970 amendments were intended to be a "drastic remedy to . . . a serious and otherwise uncheckable problem." Id., at 256. Subsequent legislative history confirms that the technology-forcing goals of the 1970 amendments are still paramount in today's Act. See Clean Air Conference Report (1977): Statement of Intent; Clarification of Select Provisions, 123 Cong. Rec. 27070 (1977) (stating, regarding the 1977 amendments to the Act, that "this year's legislation retains and even strengthens the technology forcing . . . goals of the 1970 Act"); S. Rep. No. 101-228, p. 5 (1989) (stating that the 1990 amendments to the Act require ambient air quality standards to be set at "the level that 'protects the public health' with an 'adequate margin of safety,' without regard to the economic or technical feasibility of attainment" (emphasis added)).
To read this legislative history as meaning what it says does not impute to Congress an irrational intent. Technology-forcing hopes can prove realistic. Those persons, for example, who opposed the 1970 Act's insistence on a 90% reduction in auto emission pollutants, on the ground of excessive cost, saw the development of catalytic converter technology that helped achieve substantial reductions without the economic catastrophe that some had feared. See § 6(a) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, amending §§ 202(b)(1)(A), (B), 84 Stat. 1690 (codified at 42 U. S. C. §§ 7521(b)(1)(A), (B)) (requiring a 90% reduction in emissions); 1 Leg. Hist. 238, 240 (statement of Sen. Griffin) (arguing that the emissions standards could "force [the automobile] industry out of existence" because costs "would not be taken into account"); see generally Reitze, Mobile Source Air Pollution Control, 6 Env. Law. 309, 326-327 (2000) (discussing the development of the catalytic converter).
At the same time, the statute's technology-forcing objective makes regulatory efforts to determine the costs of implementation both less important and more difficult. It
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