The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 2019 report on Our Nation's Air that details the levels of criteria pollutants that exist in our air, which have decreased by 74 percent between 1970 and 2018. Criteria pollutants are precursors of acid rain and are a cause of detrimental diseases such as asthma. During this period, the U.S. economy increased 275 percent, energy consumption increased almost 50 percent, Americans drove more miles, and population increased.