North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley joined Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist and Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes signed the Southern Air Principles pact in Gatlinburg last week, pledging mutual support and cooperation in a regional effort to improve mountain air quality.

The three governors joined representatives from six other southeastern states for the Third Annual Governors’ Summit on Mountain Air Quality in Gatlinburg on Friday June 1.

The day-long event included a series of panel discussions concerning problems, solutions and consequences associated with growth, energy production and air quality and the joint signing of the “Southern Air Principles.”

Easley said he favored regional solutions over federal ones because “... one size does not fit all.”
Speaking during the program, Easley told the audience the Southern Air Principles “... recognizes we need a spirit of cooperation. We need mutual commitment that we will work together to meet comprehensive standards. A state can’t keep itself clean, alone, anymore than you can clean up a neighborhood by cleaning one house.”

“Our environment is more than an issue. Those of us in this region see the land as something farmers till and the water as where fishermen fish and the air as something we all must breathe, and to us it is very real,” said Easley.

Some didn’t believe regional policies were enough. Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, applauded the governors for the third air quality summit but felt there was a lack of substance.

“It's been three years and we’re still talking,” Smith said.

Smith and other environmentalists felt a region-wide effort was not comprehensive enough. Jeremy Kranowitz of the Izaak Walton League, Brownie Newman of the Western North Carolina Alliance and Jennifer Giegerich of the Georgia Public Interest Research Group joined Smith in calling for federal regulations to control power plant emissions.

Newman said he felt North Carolina had a model others could copy.

“I thank Gov. Easley and the legislature from North Carolina for supporting a substantive, pro-active, multi-pollutant approach to air pollution. The bill now in the state House would dramatically reduce pollution in North Carolina and provide a strong model for other states and the federal government.”

The bill, titled Improve Air Quality/Electric Utilities, passed the Senate April 23. A similar House bill is currently in the Public Utilities Committee.

During the summit, Easley commended the bill’s architects, Sen. Steve Metcalf (D-Asheville) and Rep. Martin Nesbitt (D-Asheville, and said he hoped a reasonable solution to the cost-recovery question would be forthcoming.

“That’s always the question. Who’s going to bear the cost? I think we should start with the basic principle that it is much cheaper to clean smokestacks than it is to clean lungs,” Easley said.

Easley saw no contradiction in the state forging ahead with its legislation and the Southern Air Principles.

“In order for North Carolina to call on other states to clean their air, so we don’t suffer the results of that pollution, we’ve got to clean up our air first,” Easley said.

According to Easley, the agreement will provide the framework for uniform regulations across the region to provide the certainty businesses need and guarantee no state's utilities are put at a competitive disadvantage.

The Southern Air Principles calls upon the chief environmental officers of the three states to, “...consult, consider and formulate a proposed joint multi-pollutant strategy; to address the problems of ozone pollution, acid deposition and reduced visibility; to take into account in developing the strategy the information and recommendations provided by the final Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative report; to provide a progress report to the governors by Dec. 31, 2001; and to make recommendations on the joint multi-pollutant strategy to the governors by March 15, 2002.”

 

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The Smoky Mountain News