Rep. Taylor misleading the public
Editors,
Representative Charles Taylor has been running a series of television
campaign ads for his re-election in the 11th congressional district,
in which he is credited for progress on air quality issues, including
his introduction of the Great Smoky Mountains Clean Air Act. The public
deserves to know the truth about the extent of his efforts.
Representative Taylor introduced the Great Smoky Mountain Clean Air
Act in 2001 during the 107th Congress where it received virtually no
support, even among members of his own party. The bill never left committee.
He did not reintroduce it in the 108th Congress. This proposed legislation
attempted to address only the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s)
power plants, ignoring all other sources of pollution that affect western
North Carolina’s air quality. Representative Taylor commissioned
a study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) to determine the sources
of air pollution in western North Carolina, but did not act on its results.
The GAO report concluded that TVA is responsible for only 30 percent
of the nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions transported into
western North Carolina. Power plants and factories owned by utilities
and private industries in other southern and midwestern states are responsible
for a greater portion. But, Taylor made no attempt to include these
greater sources in the legislation he introduced. Taylor’s Great
Smoky Mountain Clean Air Act has no relationship to the North Carolina
Clean Smokestacks Act, state legislation that Taylor had no role in
creating or passing.
Air quality has become an issue of critical importance to all people
living in western North Carolina. Asthma is the number one cause of
school absenteeism in our public schools. There is an epidemic of emphysema
and other pulmonary diseases that members of the medical community have
tied directly to the long-term deterioration of western North Carolina’s
air quality. This epidemic has caused health care costs and insurance
rates to rise. Poor visibility in the mountains is threatening the tourism
industry. Millions of trees are dead and dying at higher elevations.
Rare plant and animal species and aquatic life in our rivers and lakes
in this region are being threatened by acid rain, excess nitrogen deposition
and mercury from coal-burning power plants and other polluting sources.
It’s important that political claims, such as Representative Taylor’s,
be scrutinized for their veracity, so the public is not lulled into
complacency believing that progress is being made where it is not.
Thank you.
Avram Friedman
Executive Director of the Canary Coalition
