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FOR THE RECORD • lit •IN t ics �� ourkt . I Playing po ing the leadership necessary to get this popular Inaction and dela s are blocking an bill Passed. Some North Carolina business and in- IF y b dustry leaders are complaining about the approxi- air pollution bill that could save an mately 5 percent increase in their electric utility bills that would result from the cost of the pollu- estimated 1, 000 lives a year tion control equipment. And they are being heard loud and clear. Gov. Easley is considering weakening the bill. BY HARVARD AYERS He is considering inserting a provision which Special to The observer could result in almost doubling the current bill's The health and environmental well-being of allowance for sulfur dioxide, the main culprit in North Carolinians is suffering from inaction on the human health and mortality impacts of power the part of Gov. Mike Easley and North Carolina plant air pollution. House Speaker Jim Black. They are playing poli- Under this plan, several years from now, there tics with a popular bill designed to significantly would be an opportunity for Duke Energy and cut air pollution from coal-fired power plants over Progress Energy to excuse themselves from com- the next dozen years. plying with the second phase of the pollution re The Clean Smokestacks bill (S1078) , already ductions . passed overwhelmingly by the state Senate, would When this occurred, the . cap on sulfur dioxide remove nearly 75 percent of the harmful sulfur di- pollution would be raised from 130,000 tons un- iIII oxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury from the 14 der the Senate bill to 250 ,000 tons, no doubt reth - big coal-burning power plants of Duke Energy sulting in hundreds of additional deaths and other and Progress Energy (formerly Carolina Power health problems across the state each year. Is this 11 and Light) . the kind of leadership we expect from House ILL According to a recently released scientific Speaker Black and Gov. Easley to compromise our , study approved by the Harvard University School health and our environment in the name of corpo- of Public Health, the Clean Smokestacks bill rate profit? Contact these two leaders, and tell would result in saving over 1,000 lives across our them that you expect much more. Urge them toNI state every year and would reduce major environ- throw their full support behind the current Clean mental pollutants which kill trees, contaminate Smokestacks bill and to exert the leadership we L IN IN IN IN fish, and ruin our views. In Charlotte alone, the re- North Carolinians deserve, duction of air pollutants from power plants such Gov. Mike Easley can be reached at ir - NI NI as the three that surround the city would save al- 1-800 -662-7952. House Speaker Jim Black is at most 200 lives per year and would prevent over 919-73341151 4,000 asthma attacks . But powerful political leaders in Raleigh in- Harvard Ayers is the chairman of the Boone- based cluding, Speaker Black of Charlotte, are not exert- environmental group Appalachian Voices.