TVA target of clean air legislation

TVA target of clean air legislation

By Jason Sandford
STAFF WRITER

ASHEVILLE - U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor of Brevard is drafting legislation aimed at purifying mountain air by forcing the Tennessee Valley Authority to clean up its act.

Dubbed the Great Smoky Mountains Clean Air Act of 2000, the proposed legislation would prevent TVA's power plants from buying pollution credits from another utility and require TVA plants to drastically reduce emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide by 2005. It would also stop TVA from further drawing down Western North Carolina lakes for additional power generation.

"TVA is one of the principal sources of pollution in the mountains," said Taylor, a Republican. "We're not saying they are the only polluter," but TVA pollution from power production is greater than the pollution generated by all the power plants in North Carolina combined, Taylor said. "We don't want Western North Carolina to pay for their years of inefficiency."

Taylor, interviewed in his Asheville office, said he's drafting the legislation now and plans to introduce it when he returns to Washington. His proposal comes as more mountain residents have been focusing attention on the region's worsening air quality and the impact of pollution that blows into the mountains from out of state. The proposal also comes during an election year. Taylor is running for a sixth term in Western North Carolina's 11th Congressional District.

The government-chartered TVA is a prime target because the quasi-governmental agency should straighten up its own house before imposing tougher restrictions on private businesses, Taylor said. His bill would require TVA power plants to:

• Cut overall sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent from 1997.
• Drop overall carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels.
• Reduce overall mercury emissions by 90 percent from 1997 levels.

The bill would require TVA to meet those goals by Jan. 1, 2005.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed similar reduction goals for investor-owned utilities, but this bill "will go to the source and direct them to clean it up now," Taylor said.

The Citizen-Times was unable to reach a TVA spokesman for comment Sunday.

The proposal is a good first step, said Asheville resident Hazel Fobes, a spokeswoman for the group Citizens for Safe Drinking Water and Air.

"To me, (Taylor's) on the right track. But it isn't just TVA, though, who is at fault. We must not forget our utility plants. I would ask Mr. Taylor, 'What are you going to do with your own constituents,' Fobes said.

"We're all in this together. It's all of us and I think it's wrong for me to ask you to clean up your backyard, even if it's dirtier, and not clean up mine."