Post by delhi Garden on Mar 14, 2005 15:24:25 GMT -5
Associated Press
Last update: March 10, 2005
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Former Vice President Al Gore told a conference on air quality Wednesday that the nation lacks only the nonpartisan will to protect and preserve the environment.
"Everything that needs to be done to clear up the Smokies ... to help the children of Knoxville with this (pollution-related) asthma crisis. Everything that needs to be done to clean up our air (is at hand)," Gore told an overflow crowd at the University of Tennessee.
"This is one of those times when you are called to act," the lifelong environmentalist urged them. "Morally, ethically, politically -- not in a partisan way -- I mean as citizens, Democrats and Republicans, alike."
He said the environment "used to be a bipartisan issue," recalling that former Sens. Howard Baker Jr., a Tennessee Republican, and Ed Muskie, a Maine Democrat, jointly drafted the first Clean Air Act in 1970.
Times have changed, Gore said.
"We've allowed wedges to be driven, often by special interests that have a financial stake in not having a Clean Air Act this time around," he said. "They have more power now than they did in 1970s ...
"But we the people, regardless of party, have the God-given right and the ability to step forward and say we are going to change this as Americans and we are going to save this Earth's environment."
Baker, who recently retired as U.S. ambassador to Japan, agreed the political climate was different when he worked on the clean air law that for the first time set science-based limits on pollution and time limits to clean it up.
"We came together to produce a legislative work that would endure," Baker said. "(It) was the beginning in many ways of the entire environmental movement in the United States."
But Baker said special interest lobbying grew along with the movement, and it was tougher to amend the act just seven years later.
The Clean Air Act is needed today as much as ever, said Baker, who counts the act as one of the crowning moments in his long career in public service.
"We need to build on our achievements so far," Baker said. "We have improved the quality of the air in America, but not enough."
The daylong conference was sponsored by the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at UT. It was held as nearly two dozen Tennessee counties fight to meet tougher air quality requirements and the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park wrestles with the label of the most polluted national park in the country.
Sulfur emissions, mostly from coal-fired power plants, and nitrogen emissions, primarily from cars and trucks, are the main culprits behind ozone that makes it hard to breath, acid rain that kills plants and fish in the Smokies and smog that obscures mountain vistas.
"There are still serious health consequences related to the air quality we have today and we must move forward in a very aggressive way (to find solutions)," said Betsy Child, Tennessee commissioner of environment and conservation.
Paul Gilman, director of the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies, calculated the public health benefit from curbing pollution in dollars. A plan expected to be revealed soon by the Environmental Protection Agency to curb multiple pollutants from sources both near and far, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, could produce $80 billion a year in health benefits, Gilman said.
Environmentalists attending the conference praised the expected EPA standard, saying it will augment existing Clean Air laws and replace the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" initiative that would give polluters more time to meet standards.
The Clear Skies plan stalled in Washington on Wednesday when a Senate committee voted 9-9 on whether to advance it for more debate.
"The Clear Skies Act doesn't do what this area needs and what the (Smokies) national park needs," said Don Barger, Southeast director for the National Parks Conservation Association.
"What we have seen ... is that the existing Clean Air Act, properly implemented, can and does work. What we need is a strong Clean Air Interstate Rule," he said.
Jim Renfro, air quality specialist in the Smokies, said there are signs of improvement. Favorable weather conditions and emission reductions from Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired power plant produced the cleanest ozone year on record last year.
Sulfate pollution is down 50 percent in the last 20 years, Renfro said, although visibility still can be a problem. And nitrogen pollution is down 40 percent, although it is still seven times target levels.
"There is no single silver bullet," Child said. "It is going to take all of us."
www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJour...ENV01031005.htm
Last update: March 10, 2005
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Former Vice President Al Gore told a conference on air quality Wednesday that the nation lacks only the nonpartisan will to protect and preserve the environment.
"Everything that needs to be done to clear up the Smokies ... to help the children of Knoxville with this (pollution-related) asthma crisis. Everything that needs to be done to clean up our air (is at hand)," Gore told an overflow crowd at the University of Tennessee.
"This is one of those times when you are called to act," the lifelong environmentalist urged them. "Morally, ethically, politically -- not in a partisan way -- I mean as citizens, Democrats and Republicans, alike."
He said the environment "used to be a bipartisan issue," recalling that former Sens. Howard Baker Jr., a Tennessee Republican, and Ed Muskie, a Maine Democrat, jointly drafted the first Clean Air Act in 1970.
Times have changed, Gore said.
"We've allowed wedges to be driven, often by special interests that have a financial stake in not having a Clean Air Act this time around," he said. "They have more power now than they did in 1970s ...
"But we the people, regardless of party, have the God-given right and the ability to step forward and say we are going to change this as Americans and we are going to save this Earth's environment."
Baker, who recently retired as U.S. ambassador to Japan, agreed the political climate was different when he worked on the clean air law that for the first time set science-based limits on pollution and time limits to clean it up.
"We came together to produce a legislative work that would endure," Baker said. "(It) was the beginning in many ways of the entire environmental movement in the United States."
But Baker said special interest lobbying grew along with the movement, and it was tougher to amend the act just seven years later.
The Clean Air Act is needed today as much as ever, said Baker, who counts the act as one of the crowning moments in his long career in public service.
"We need to build on our achievements so far," Baker said. "We have improved the quality of the air in America, but not enough."
The daylong conference was sponsored by the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at UT. It was held as nearly two dozen Tennessee counties fight to meet tougher air quality requirements and the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park wrestles with the label of the most polluted national park in the country.
Sulfur emissions, mostly from coal-fired power plants, and nitrogen emissions, primarily from cars and trucks, are the main culprits behind ozone that makes it hard to breath, acid rain that kills plants and fish in the Smokies and smog that obscures mountain vistas.
"There are still serious health consequences related to the air quality we have today and we must move forward in a very aggressive way (to find solutions)," said Betsy Child, Tennessee commissioner of environment and conservation.
Paul Gilman, director of the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies, calculated the public health benefit from curbing pollution in dollars. A plan expected to be revealed soon by the Environmental Protection Agency to curb multiple pollutants from sources both near and far, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, could produce $80 billion a year in health benefits, Gilman said.
Environmentalists attending the conference praised the expected EPA standard, saying it will augment existing Clean Air laws and replace the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" initiative that would give polluters more time to meet standards.
The Clear Skies plan stalled in Washington on Wednesday when a Senate committee voted 9-9 on whether to advance it for more debate.
"The Clear Skies Act doesn't do what this area needs and what the (Smokies) national park needs," said Don Barger, Southeast director for the National Parks Conservation Association.
"What we have seen ... is that the existing Clean Air Act, properly implemented, can and does work. What we need is a strong Clean Air Interstate Rule," he said.
Jim Renfro, air quality specialist in the Smokies, said there are signs of improvement. Favorable weather conditions and emission reductions from Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired power plant produced the cleanest ozone year on record last year.
Sulfate pollution is down 50 percent in the last 20 years, Renfro said, although visibility still can be a problem. And nitrogen pollution is down 40 percent, although it is still seven times target levels.
"There is no single silver bullet," Child said. "It is going to take all of us."
www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJour...ENV01031005.htm