Taylor will try air pollution bill again

Asheville Citizen-Times
Taylor will try air pollution bill again
By Jon Ostendorff, STAFF WRITER
May 26, 2001

ASHEVILLE - Western North Carolina has a higher respiratory-illness death rate than
other parts of the state, according to a federal government report released Friday.
The General Accounting Office report, titled "Air Pollution: Air Quality and Respiratory
Problems in and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park," was commissioned by
U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, to bolster his Great Smoky Mountains Clean Air
Act.
"Death rates from illnesses in the North Carolina and Tennessee counties adjacent to the
(Great Smoky Mountains National Park) were generally higher than the comparable rates
for the state as a whole throughout the 1990s, even though these counties had
substantially lower death rates from all causes," the report states.
The report is adjusted for age, but not for smoking or socioeconomic levels.
"There is pretty good reason to believe that air pollution is one of those things (causing the
high death rate)," said David Marwick of the Government Accounting Office.
Taylor's proposed legislation is aimed at reducing pollution coming from the Tennessee
Valley Authority's coal-fired power plants. Much of that pollution blows east across the
mountains, making the Smokies the most polluted park in the nation.
Taylor introduced a similar bill last year, but that legislation did not make it out of a
House subcommittee.
During a community meeting in Asheville on Friday, Taylor praised TVA for installing
pollution-reducing equipment on some of its oldest power plants and said he expected the
electricity provider to continue reducing harmful emissions - a step that might remove the
need for legislation.
"It is possible to do this without legislation," Taylor said, adding that he believes the bill
he started working on last year spurred TVA to clean up. "But we will introduce the act
and it will be there if necessary."
After the meeting, environmentalists, who have often clashed with Taylor on
conservation issues, said the congressman seemed sincere about controlling pollution
coming from TVA facilities.

"I think he was very serious about trying to get reductions," said Brownie Newman of the Western North Carolina Alliance, an Asheville-based environmental group. "We applaud his support of our efforts here in North Carolina (with the state Clean Smoke Stacks Act.) We will support any effort to reduce TVA pollution, but we also need comprehensive clean air legislation."

Ulla-Britt Reeves of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a Knoxville-based TVA watchdog group, said she also believed Taylor was serious about forcing TVA to clean up. But, she said, the utility provider likely would not improve without a push from the federal government.

"We fully believe that comprehensive legislation is the real solution," Reeves said, adding that legislation only aimed at TVA could create a market disadvantage if the company is forced to raise its rates.

A House subcommittee is currently considering comprehensive clean air legislation - the Clean Power Plant Act of 2001. The bill is designed to clean up pollution from all power plants and will close the grandfather loophole in the Clean Air Act that allows old coal-fired facilities to continue polluting.

After the meeting, Taylor said he would consider comprehensive clean air legislation, but would not pledge his support to the current bill.

"I've got three children and I hope to live here and have clean air," Taylor said. "I don't know anyone who is not for clean air. (Legislation) has to be realistic from a cost standpoint, a technological standpoint, and it has to be realistic form a political standpoint."

Congressional leaders may have trouble passing either of the bills. The National Energy Policy Development Group, formed this year by President Bush and led by Vice President Cheney, has said recently that it is considering relaxing regulations on coal-fired power plants to help alleviate the nation's energy woes.