<< Back 7/3/02 Clean air advocates rally in peaceful protest during visit By Thomas Crowe On a hazy, hot day with poor visibility, seven environmental groups from Western North Carolina and Tennessee converged on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Sugarlands Visitor Center and Clingmans Dome to greet the Environmental Protection Agency Director Christine Todd Whitman. Whitman was in the park to promote the Bush administration’s “Clear Skies” initiative. The environmental groups claim Bush’s initiative is too weak to truly make an impact on air pollution problems both in the southern Blue Ridge mountains and across the rest of the country. From Western North Carolina the Canary Coalition from Jackson County, Appalachian Voices from Boone and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project from Asheville were on hand, while groups from Tennessee included the Southern Alliance for Clean Air, the U.S. Public Interest & Energy Research Group, Earth First and the League for Women Voters. With pistol-packing NPS rangers carefully watching their every move, the energetic and enthusiastic crowd of all ages and backgrounds — upwards of 100 in number — were waiting for Whitman and Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and their entourage as they entered the Visitor Center at 10 a.m., waving signs and banners and wearing slogan T-shirts and oxygen masks. Among the ranks of the groups staging Monday’s protest action could be found bear, deer and raccoon symbolically represented by individuals in costume — all adding their voices to the chants: “Clean air, not hot air. Clean skies, not clear lies,” an “Hey Whitman, what do you say — how about clean air, today?” With Canary Coalition members Avram Friedman, Will Harlan, Bill Lyons, Michael Grant White, Esther Godfrey and Zev Friedman leading the way, by 11 a.m. a caravan of “Clean Air” vehicles made their way up the 20 miles on the Tennessee side of the mountain in bumper to bumper summer tourist traffic to Clingmans Dome. On the top of the mountain, and with eyes stinging and watering from pollution — visibility only 13 miles — Canary Coalition members donning luminescent red T-shirts with large black letters that announced the words “We can’t breathe,” were in evidence all along the path to the observation station which stands at the mountain’s pinnacle, greeting the Whitman at every turn. Meanwhile, with Whitman holing a short press conference and photo op in the observation station atop the mountain, down below in the parking area clean air group members congregated, sporting signs such as “Smoggy Mountains” and “We need to clean smokestacks everywhere.” At a little after 2 p.m., back at the Sugarlands Visitor Center, the teams of environmental groups had reconstituted their forces and were in place for a photo op of their own, accompanying a press conference for the same media for whom the EPA director had held court only an hour before. With cameras rolling and still cameras clicking, spokespersons for the organizations represented in the clean air collective took their turns rebutting Whitman. A spokesman for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Steve Smith, spoke matter-of-factly on the Bush administration’s position: “Those of us here today don’t believe the current administration in Washington has a leg to stand on when they say their proposal will do what is necessary to help this park recover from the damages of air pollution. We don’t believe the Clear Skies Initiative is park protective for the Smokies. We want clean skies, not clear lies.” Vesna Plakanis of the camping and hiking business, A Walk in the Woods, gave a short but emotional speech: “This summer we’ve had to turn a huge amount of business away because of the bad air quality and high ozone days in the park. We are taking risks with our business because we do not want to endanger our visitors’ health.” Speaking largely on behalf of the residents on the North Carolina side of the park, Appalachian Voices spokesperson Harvard Ayers — a professor at Appalachain State University in Boone — spoke plainly to questions fielded from reporters. “The second phase of Bush’s Clear Skies initiative is much too long (fully implemented in 2018). Some of us here who are elder in age won’t live to see the changes in any clean up. We’re here today to say that Bush’s Clear Skies is just not enough. We’re going to need stronger state and federal legislation to solve all our pollution problems,” said Ayers. “I’m proud to be from a state (North Carolina) that is leading the way in terms of air pollution standards. Our recently passed act, the Clean Smokestacks Act, has raised the bar and set the mark for all the other states to duplicate or surpass,” said Ayers. As the media began to disperse and the protest action crowds began moving toward their vehicles and the ride home, they were left with the words of Canary Coalition Executive Director Avram Friedman: “Energy in the Southeast must be produced in ways that are good for public health, the environment, and the economy. The responsibility for accomplishing these things lies with the people, themselves. If change is going to occur, we are going to have to do it. The burden is on us, and we must continue to be vigilant. We must continue to fight the same fight that has won us the Clean Smokestacks Act in North Carolina. There is still much for all of us to do. But I believe we are up to it, and can and will bring about this change.”