Press Mention The Tennessean September 27, 2002
SACE Quoted
N. Carolina questions clean air of neighbors
In this mention
North Carolina's newly passed Clean Smokestacks Law prompts the state to pressure neighboring states, including Tennessee, to reduce air pollution affecting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy characterizes TVA's emissions-reduction efforts as insufficient, while TVA projects significant reductions in nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide by 2012 at a cost of $2.8 billion.
air quality could soon have "significant" political implications for both states and the nation
Stephen A. Smith
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Full transcript
Bacon's
N. Carolina
questions
clean air of
neighbors
Tennessee claims state
complies with standards
By JACK HURST
Staff Writer
North Carolina has accompanied its recently passed Clean Smokestacks Law with letters to surrounding states, including Tennessee, telling them to clean up their own air or risk potential legal action by the Tar Heel state.
"The quality of our air depends on all of us, and North Carolinians do not want the benefits created by this new law to be lost because of emissions from other states," Attorney General Roy Cooper said in letters to seven adjoining states.
"We will look at all options available to us to ensure that does not happen."
A large factor behind North Carolina's action is the air status of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The park is the nation's most visited and earlier this week was designated its most air-polluted by a trio of environmental groups.
Sending letters to each state from Gov. Michael Easley and from Cooper was hailed as "bold" action and "breaking a psychological stalemate in the region" by prominent environmentalists.
In the most detailed answer his office has received, Cooper was told by Tennessee Deputy Gov. Justin WILSON and Attorney General Paul Summers that Tennessee is "one of the few states that meet all current state and federal air-quality standards."
Wilson and Summers added that the state has worked with TVA, whose power plant emissions have been described as substantial contributors to area air pollution, in a "rigorous" reduction program projected to cost the power producer "nearly $1 million a day for the next nine years."
"We believe that we are on track to achieve deeper reductions and achieve them earlier than North Carolina, but the end result will be the same," the Tennessee letter added.
John Shipp, TVA manager of environmental policy and planning, said that by the end of the next decade TVA will have reduced its emissions of nitrogen oxide, the pollutant that produces ozone, by 75%, and of sulfur dioxide, which makes haze and acid rain, by 85%. He said it will cost $2.8 billion.
Don Barger, Southeast regional director of the National Parks Conservation Alliance, and Stepherr Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, each characterized TVA's cleanup effort as in progress but not nearly thorough enough.
Smith noted that air quality could soon have "significant" political implications for both states and the nation.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, widely seen as a contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, recently held hearings on the Bush Administration's "Clear Skies" environmental bill.
Meanwhile, Smith said, Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, a potential Republican vice presidential candidate, is getting Republican tourism advocates in East Tennessee. ■