2003 State of the Canary Address

Hello, I’m Avram Friedman and I’d like to thank all of you who are hearing this and reading this statement for your participation and support of the Canary Coalition.   While, I think, almost all people are beginning to feel like the caged canary in a coal mine,  you are the ones who are still singing.  Please, don’t stop.

In the past year the Canary Coalition has grown.  Our membership is now 515.   We now have members in 17 states.   New prominent members of the community have joined our ranks, such as downtown Asheville realtor Ted Prosser,  Jeff Goss of the Goss Agency in Asheville, Mark Leonard, the CEO of Westcare, Buncombe County Commissioners David Gantt, Patsy Keever and Asheville City Councilman Jim Ellis.

Our staff has grown, as well, from three to four, as Maria Wise, our new Program Development Manager, joined Paul Tapley, the Assistant Director, Diana Kirk, the Membership and Accounting Manager and myself.  And I’d like to acknowledge all the hard work and accomplishments of these staff members in the last year despite the fact that our paychecks have been few and far between.

Since the successful grassroots effort that lead to the passage of the NC Clean Smokestacks Act last year, on the issue of coal-burning power plant pollution we have been forced into the position of playing defense, to protect the existing standards outlined in the federal Clean Air Act.  There has been a determined effort by the current administration in Washington to weaken the New Source Review provision that is the legal mechanism for cleaning up the smokestacks of older power plants across the country.  For the first time in the 33 year history of the Clean Air Act the EPA has attempted to weaken the law.   Through the years of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Senior and Clinton, the only changes ever introduced to the Clean Air Act were designed to strengthen it.  But, this administration has been different with regard to clean air.

The EPA has, so far, attempted to change NSR in two waves.  The first action came in December of last year when a rule was finalized that  created a huge loophole for factories and refineries to modernize and expand without improving emission control systems.  This prompted 14 states and the District of Columbia to file a lawsuit against the EPA.  It also prompted Senator John Edwards to introduce legislation to block the EPA's action. The Edwards amendment unfortunately failed on a vote of 50-46 with four environmentally minded senators absent and North Carolina's own Elizabeth Dole voting the wrong way. The Canary Coalition responded by leading a statewide campaign to urge Attorney General Cooper and Governor Easley to join the lawsuit, that would have made North Carolina the fifteenth state to sue the EPA over its Final Ruling.  We introduced resolutions to city and town councils to gain the weight of their support.  By the deadline of March 3^rd, Sylva, Asheville and Chapel Hill sent resolutions or letters to the Attorney General urging them to consider joining the NSR lawsuit against the EPA.  The Asheville Citizen-Times and the Charlotte Observer wrote editorials demanding the state to take this action, all at the behest of the Canary Coalition.  But, time was not on our side and the AG failed to act.  As a result of his inaction, the Attorney General was informed that we considered him in violation of Section 10 of the NC Clean Smokestacks Act that unambiguously mandates state authorities to use all available means to protect our air quality from out-of-state sources of air pollution.  His office was inundated with mail, phone calls and email to that affect from all over the state.  There must have been yellow feathers all over his office and in his coffee, and he must have seen small yellow birds flurrying around him in his sleep.

But, the EPA was not finished.  A second set of rule changes to NSR was proposed.  Now the definition of “Routine Maintenance” was to be changed.  This would allow grandfathered coal-burning power plants to virtually rebuild and still remain within the definition of “routine maintenance”, still keeping their exempt status from having to meet strict emission control requirements.  The EPA wanted to by-pass the public hearing process for this ruling.   But, the Canary Coalition along with other advocacy groups all over the state and country cried foul and demanded a public hearing process.  That the EPA has the authority to implement this sweeping proposed rule change without going through Congress is of questionable legality to begin with.  In fact that’s the basis of the lawsuit brought by states against the EPA for its Finalized rule.  But, to try to by-pass a public hearing process is undemocratic and inexcusable .  In the end, the EPA relented and held five hearings around the country, all on one day, March 31^st.  One of the hearings was held in the EPA complex of the Research Triangle Park, near Raleigh, under the most intimidating circumstances I’ve ever experienced by a government agency.   The Canary Coalition and other organizations helped inform, organize and bring hundreds of speakers to this hearing, overcoming the obstacles that had been placed before us to prevent citizens from attending this under-publicized, remote, working Monday hearing that demanded pre-registration, photo ID’s and a good deal of determination to get to and speak at.  But, the bright spot for us was that apparently our state officials got the message, because Secretary of DENR Bill Ross showed up to make a statement opposing the Proposed Rule and Governor Mike Easley issued a similar statement in writing.  That they felt it necessary to do so can only be attributed to the flack they received after sitting out the battle over the Finalized Rule four weeks earlier.  They were apparently still brushing the yellow feathers off of their suits.  The lawsuit against the NSR Final Rule and the status of the Proposed Rule are still pending.

The Canary Coalition's community organizing efforts again came into play when US Senator Jim Jeffords came to Asheville in May of this year.  Senator Jeffords, you may recall, resigned from the Republican Party two years ago handing the US Senate over to the Democratic leadership.  He became an Independent, but was given the Chairmanship of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works.  He used this platform to introduce his Clean Power Act, the most comprehensive legislation ever formulated to strengthen the Clean Air Act and essentially end the Grandfather clause for the older coal-burning power plants that are the largest source of air pollution in the nation.  But, before his bill could be considered in the Senate, the 2002 election resulted in a change in leadership again and he lost his chairmanship of the committee.  So, this magnificent bill lays dormant in the well of the Senate while the Bush Clear Skies (or Clear Lies) Initiative has come front and center, a pitiful substitute.  But Jim Jeffords has decided not to lie down and has begun a nationwide campaign tour to drum up support for his Clean Power Act and against the Bush Clear Skies Initiative.  His first stop was Asheville, and the Canary Coalition played a critical role in helping to get out a crowd of approximately 150 people and the news media to the Grove Park Inn to listen to him speak and to give him the opportunity to hear from the local community about the extent of the air quality crisis in the Great Smoky Mountains region.  Buncombe County Commissioner David Gantt, a Canary Coalition member, accompanied Senator Jeffords at the podium.  Since his departure from Asheville we have continued to maintain contact with Senator Jeffords and his office and will be active on the federal level in promoting the Jeffords Clean Power Act.

The Canary Coalition’s effort to clean up power plant smokestacks extended into the realm of enforcement, this year, as well.  We have begun to monitor, review and comment on the Title V permitting process for power plants owned by the public utilities in North Carolina.  Title V is the federally mandated program that combines all local, state and federal air quality requirements for a factory into one permitting process administered by the state's Division of Air Quality.  Public monitoring of this complex process begins with the request for a public hearing for each permit. The NC Division of Air Quality is not legally required to hold a public hearing, by their interpretation of the law, unless it is requested by enough organizations and people, displaying significant public interest, as determined arbitrarily, by the DAQ.  Along with a very few other organizations in the state the Canary Coalition made these requests for each power plant as the permit application was announced.  Until this year the requests have always been honored and hearings have been held. To date this year there have been six power plant permit applications, six requests for hearings by the Canary Coalition and other groups,  but only two hearings that combined the applications for two plants at each.

The Canary Coalition sent a representative to each of the two hearings that have been held to comment on the permit applications for four plants.  Progress Energy’s Roxboro and Mayo plant hearings were held at Roxboro Community College.  Duke Energy’s Belew’s Creek and Dan River plant hearings were in Rockingham Community College.  If you don’t know where these places are or how to get there you are not alone.  There was no publicity about these hearings outside the immediate area where these plants are located.  The operators of the plants and the state agency responsible for regulating them performed the absolute minimum requirements under the law for informing the public.  Copies of the permit application were not easy to obtain.  One has to know that they exist and who to ask for copies.  But, we tracked down the information and secured copies that we distributed to several Canary members who helped sift through the massive, confusing and tediously legal and technical documents.   Some very disturbing practices were uncovered during this process, including the fact that some coal-burning plants in our state are permitted to incinerate toxic wastes from local industries, without having to meet the normal legal and technical requirements for toxic waste incinerators.  Before we began this monitoring process the public was not aware of this.

Given the remote location and lack of publicity, attendance at the hearings was limited to a few hard core environmental spokespeople, including ours, and a few utility representatives.   This low turnout has enabled the DAQ to rationalize the announcement that public hearings will most likely not occur for future Title V applications due to lack of public interest.  The Canary Coalition disagrees and intends to take the DAQ to task with each and every power plant Title V application as it comes due.  Earlier this month, the DAQ made good on its threat and refused to hold a hearing for a utility owned coal-burning power plant in NC, the Allen Steam Station in Gaston County, despite it being requested by multiple parties.  As far as we know this is without precedent. As a result of this refusal the Canary Coalition has initiated a campaign to reform the Division of Air Quality due to its inappropriate ties to the utility industry.  The DAQ seems to be acting as an agent of the industry rather than as the government agency responsible for regulating the industry.  We are currently investigating into the number of former utlility industry employees and management personnel who hold positions of authority in the DAQ.  We have been joined by several other statewide organizations in this endeavor.

The Canary Coalition also has been active in another area that is important to the long term future of air quality in the region.  If our air quality is to improve there will have to be a change in the way electricity is produced in and around the region.  The development of clean, renewable energy resources and the institution of strong conservation and energy efficiency measures is as important to clean air as is cleaning up the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants. This is true because if energy use continues to accelerate, and we have no clean alternative ways to produce electricity, more coal plants will certainly be built and more coal will be mined, transported and burned, reversing any gains we may have achieved through clean smokestacks legislation and regulation.  So, the Canary Coalition has taken a pro-active role in participating as a stakeholder in the negotiating process with the State, the public utilities, renewable energy developers and other environmental organizations in creating the NC GreenPower program.  This program will allow North Carolina's electrical consumers the choice of purchasing power generated by renewable energy sources by voluntarily paying a small premium each month when paying their utility bills.  The NC Green Power program is not perfect.  There were interests at the negotiating table that were promoting unclean, unsafe and environmentally detrimental technologies as so-called green technology.  There were attempts to include older hydro-electric plants, existing wood-burning plants, direct animal waste incineration and other questionable technologies.  But, because of our persistence, the program was divided into two programs.  The residential "small volume" program includes only solar electric systems, wind power and facilities that use methane derived from landfills.  This received the endorsement of an independent accreditation group, Center for Resource Services, CRS, who is recognized nationwide by the environmental community to have high standards in determining the environmental value of programs such as this.  We polled our membership on our email network and as a result this program has been endorsed whole-heartedly by the Canary Coalition.  The second program is the large volume industrial product.  It includes solar, wind and methane but also all the other questionable technologies.  This second program received the endorsement of neither CRS nor the Canary Coalition.  In fact all the environmental organizations involved in the process, except one, rejected the large volume product.

The process, however, was worth it for the emergence of the small volume product that could become available to electrical consumers later this year. 

One problem hampering the potential success of NCGreenPower, however, is the set of legal obstacles in North Carolina to developing wind energy.  World-wide wind power has emerged, in the last five years, as cost competitive with all other sources of energy.  In fact, wind energy is the fastest growing energy source in the world today.  Wind power is safe and clean.  It uses no fossil fuels.  It generates no industrial wastes or emissions.  Wind power promises significant and permanent economic benefits to rural communities.  And North Carolina has vast wind resources in the mountains and on the coast.   A study recently completed at Appalachian State University revealed that North Carolina is in the upper 5% of wind potential nationwide.

So, the Canary Coalition has initiated a state-wide petition campaign, kicked-off this very morning in Asheville, to our state government officials, to remove the legal obstacles to the development of North Carolina's wind resources and to set guidelines that would continue to protect areas of particular viewshed sensitivity and rare and valuable ecosystems from wind development.  Our petition campaign has gained the co-sponsorship of Environmental Defense, Western North Carolina Alliance, the NC Sustainable Energy Association, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Long Branch Environmental Education Center.   To further this cause the Canary Coalition has organized a series of field trips for government officials to visit TVA's pilot wind project on Buffalo Mountain, Tennessee.  Last Sunday Senator Joe Sam Queen, Madison County Commissioner Reese Steen, Sylva Commissioner Maurice Moody and others participated on our first field trip.  During the trip we met with TVA officials and the Executive of Anderson County, Tennessee who related to our officials the benefits his community has received from the wind turbines on Buffalo Mountain, including several hundred thousand dollars in tax revenues over the past three years.  Then we visited the site itself where the wind turbines were dutifily turning, gracefully on their towers producing clean, safe energy.  It was very impressive and the members of our entourage left with a positive impression.  Earlier in this legislative session Senator Queen decided to introduce a Wind Energy Study Bill to the NC Senate as a result of lobbying done by the Canary Coalition, the Alliance and other groups.  I think this trip re-enforced his convictions. And, in this case, a study bill is good progress, because the more you study about the potential for wind energy in North Carolina, the better it looks.  Just this morning, as you know, we held the kick-off event for the state-wide wind petition campaign here in Asheville at the entrance to the City Hall.  We had good media coverage and a good turnout. I think it will have a meaningful impact.  Stay tuned.

With all the success and accomplishment of the Canary Coalition over the past two years, there are also failures.

One glaring example is our inability to put together the elements necessary to produce AirAid, the media event of national proportions that was at the core of the formation of the Canary Coalition at its inception in October of 2000.  AirAid has proven elusive.  Building the coalition of organizations, nationally known entertainers and political figures and local business and community leaders necessary for the success of this event has been like trying to hold water in a paper bag.  Several concerted efforts have fallen through for different reasons.  Key elements of the coalition have dropped out.  Expected funding sources have fallen through.  Entertainers have been hard to nail down to committments.   Yet, we have not given up.  The plan is now for AirAid to take place in early August of 2004.  Reshuffling our strategy,  the priority is now to attract nationally known political figures first and to put less emphasis on expensive entertainment, although music will still be a major part of the event.  This reduces the need for enormous sums of money and perhaps enhances the attraction for national media coverage. When I was in Washington DC earlier this month I spoke with the aids of ten federal legislators who have been particularly outspoken in favor of clean air issues and opposed to the Bush Clear Skies Initiative. Among these were Senator Jim Jeffords,  Senator John Edwards, Representative Henry Waxman,  Senator John McCain and others.  I was informing them about AirAid and inviting their participation, just putting it on their radar screens for next summer.  Although I didn't get any committments, I did get very positive reactions and responses.  I think this strategy holds promise and we'll continue to follow this track.

The other failure of the Canary Coalition has been our inability to raise money on the scale needed to expand our activities both in depth and geographically.  We have always operated on a short shoestring and we continue to do so.  We have four highly dedicated staff members who have stuck with the organization despite the fact that months go by without pay.   Times are miserable for all non-profits right now.  The economy is down, foundation money is greatly diminished.  Many people just don't have the money to give away right now.  But, we can't give up the fight for clean air.  It's too important for the future of our children.   So, I ask all members to redouble your efforts in bringing new people into the Canary Coalition.  That's how we can and will survive.  We need alot of people to give a little money.   Everyone has to breathe.  Explain to your family and friends that the Canary Coalition is doing a good job by working to make it easier to breathe, and they can help.   Thank you.