Straight talk from folks who work in Congress is rare, so I didn’t expect much when I went to Asheville last week to listen to Charles Taylor talk about a recent clean air report.

Taylor (R-Brevard) and representatives from a number of environmental causes had come to the Diana Wortham Theater to listen as the General Accounting Office released a report on air quality in Western North Carolina. Taylor had asked the GAO to study the issue, and the comptroller general himself was in Asheville at its unveiling.

The results of the study were not surprising to those who have been covering this issue. But the stamp of the GAO — which has built its reputation as a nonpartisan, objective study group — further validates the information and lends it an authoritative credibility.

The rate of death from two respiratory ailments is higher in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee than in those two states as a whole. That higher death rate is even more worrisome when looked at next to another of the report’s findings — the overall death rate in these regions is below the state average. The authors advise that the health data is questionable, and that it is impossible to link it directly to air pollution. The higher death rates, however, are indeed real.

The best and most interesting part of the whole affair, however, was watching the interplay between Rep. Taylor and environmental groups who have, to put it mildly, been long-time adversaries. Because of different views on national forest policies on logging and on how best to preserve wilderness areas, Taylor and most environmental organizations have sparred like gladiators in the forum.

Which is exactly why the meeting last week and what was said afterward is so important. Taylor would, of course, deny that he needed any kind of validation from environmentalists in this region. He has fought off all challengers for a decade, staying in office by clinging to a businessman’s mentality. He works behind the scenes, quietly, bypassing the front page.

And just because of this report, the representatives of different environmental groups are certainly not skipping along arm in arm with Taylor. There are major policy disagreements and a wide rift of philosophical differences. In Asheville, however, they were using words like “credible,” “important,” and “worthwhile” to describe this report and Taylor’s role in having it completed.

It is not hard to see why these groups can come together on this issue and perhaps leave some of their differences behind. Whether it’s from the balcony at Taylor’s Brevard mansion or through the window of a solar-powered home belonging to a hard-core liberal high in a Jackson County cove, the ill effects of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are choking us all. Rich and poor alike are suffering from the respiratory ailments, and businesses large and small will feel the effects if tourism numbers begin to decline as our views continue to disappear.

The report brought together some surprising facts. For one, most of our air quality problems are not related to the Tennessee Valley Authority. More than half of our pollution comes from the industrial Midwest, due north, according to the report. The TVA is the second-most significant polluter.

But Taylor wants to target TVA because it is a quasi-governmental agency which he and others in Congress control. The huge utility is on track to make drastic reductions in emissions, but Taylor is preparing to introduce a bill that would force it to take even more dramatic measures. It’s the same bill Taylor introduced last year while he was campaigning, one many called an election-year ploy.

There was still mistrust inside the Diana Wortham Theater. Some cited Taylor’s reluctance to support the Waxham Boehlert Clean Smokestacks Act, a clean-air measure that has dozens of co-sponsors and would force every utility to accept the same reductions Taylor is proposing for the TVA.

But some important beginnings might have been made. When traditional enemies work together, a tremendous amount of energy is created. With the state of North Carolina moving forward with its own utility clean-up bill, and with Taylor using his congressional power to muscle TVA toward more reductions on a faster timetable, one can realistically see the way to cleaner air in WNC. It can happen.

(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)

 

Back to Top
The Smoky Mountain News