Groups work to reduce pollution

Groups work to reduce pollution

TOWNES WEBB
Staff Writer

Some Knoxville groups are encouraging students to get to class by using forms of transportation other than vehicles.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Southeast's largest clean energy advocacy organization, is sponsoring a clean air bill along with U.S. Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., Jim Davis, D-Fla., and Charles Bass, R-N.H., to help prevent the environment's deterioration.

"We are very pleased Rep. Cooper is taking a leadership role in the House to improve air quality," Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said. "This bipartisan move has the potential to break a partisan log jam that has choked our national parks and kept citizens across the country holding their breath waiting for the promise of clean, healthy air."

The Clean Air Planning Act sets national caps on sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide. The reductions of these four chemicals will occur in shorter time and in larger increments of the four pollutants than under President Bush's pollution plan, Clear Skies.

The Clear Skies plan does not call for any reductions to the global warming-causing gas carbon dioxide, the main pollutant of fuel ejections from cars, trucks, buses, etc.

Cooper's move is a clear indication to the White House and Environmental Protection Agency that Congress and citizens need to improve air-pollution controls.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., broke ranks with President George W. Bush in July to lend his support to the Senate version of the Clean Air Planning Act.

KAT, the 2004 North American Transit System of the Year, supports the Clean Energy Act, with an 8 percent rider increase in 2004, amounting to 195,000 additional rides on the KAT in the course of one year.

Increasing ridership on the KAT has been an upward trend in the past eight years. Since 1996, transit ridership in the Knoxville area has increased 82 percent, equivalent to 1.4 million additional passengers.

"We are very proud that more and more people continue to see us as a great transportation option," Mark Hairr, KAT's general manager, said. "We attribute much of this success to projects such as our Clean Fuels Program, our 95 percent on-time performance, and our emphasis on customer service."

Students at UT are contributing to saving the environment by using alternative means of transportation. Many students ride bikes, take the KAT or walk to campus.

"I ride my bike to class because it is quicker than walking," Robin Yeary, sophomore in horticulture and agronomy, said. "If a helmet would fit over my dreadlocks, I'd wear one, but for now, my concern is getting to class on time and saving the environment."

Zach Zalowitz, undecided sophomore, said, "The KAT takes you right to campus. It's really convenient."

Lauren Abernathy, undecided sophomore, said carpooling is another good way to cut down on air pollution. "I carpool with my roommates or take the trolley so I don't have to get up as early."

Some pedestrians often feel it is easier to walk rather than drive because it is good exercise, and it is quicker than dealing with finding that precious parking spot.

"Walking is a good way to get exercise," Stephen Brown, undecided sophomore, said. "It saves gas and is better than the hassle of finding a parking spot or having to pay parking tickets that you get on campus."