Some good news about how coal industry is feeling the pressure from grassroots involvement.
Keep up the good work

During 2007, 59 proposed coal-fired power plants were cancelled or shelved, according to research compiled by Coal Moratorium NOW! and Rainforest Action Network. The list is available at Coal Plants Cancelled in 2007.
A moratorium on new coal plants is “the most critical action for saving the planet at this time”, said Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Center , the world’s largest climate research agency.

The study concluded that
-climate played a role in at least 15 plant cancellations
-coal plants disappeared completely from some utilities’ long-range plans
-renewables are edging out coal
-with mounting grassroots opposition, financial groups are moving away from coal
-more plants have been abandoned than rejected
-heavy spending for ‘clean coal’ message did not convince the public

According to a survey completed in the first week of January 2008 by Coal Moratorium NOW! and Rainforest Action Network, the number of proposed plants (including those under construction or recently completed) now stands at 113, dropping from 151 in May 2007, then down to 121 in October.

Find complete article here: Progress toward coal moratorium

Coal Moratorium NOW! (https://cmNOW.org) tracks the coal boom and advocates for a moratorium on new coal plants. Together with the Center for Media and Democracy, Coal Moratorium NOW! also co-sponsors www.coalSwarm.org, a coal-oriented wiki. Contact: info@cmNOW.org or Ted Nace at 510-331-8743.

Rainforest Action Network (https://www.dirtymoney.org) runs hard-hitting campaigns to break America’s oil addiction, reduce our reliance on coal, protect endangered forests and indigenous rights, and stop destructive investments around the world through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.

Recently, the North Carolina Utilities Commission announced plans to allow Duke Energy to build a new 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant at its Cliffside facility in Rutherfordton, NC. If completed, this power plant will emit 312 million tons of carbon dioxide, the primary pollutant responsible for global warming, over its fifty year lifespan.

That’s equal to putting an additional one million cars on the roads for the next 50 years!

The state Department of Air Quality (DAQ) is now reviewing Duke’s air pollution permit application—the last significant hurdle for Duke before they start building the new coal plant.

Please join Appalachian Voices and other community members in taking this opportunity to tell DAQ to deny Duke’s air pollution permit. It is critical that we have a strong showing at this hearing, to let DAQ know that more coal power will take North Carolina in the wrong direction.

If you were unable to attend the hearings in September and October, but still want your VOICE heard please send all written comments to the following address by by November 15th, 2007:

Donald Van der Vaart
ATTN: Air Permits Section
NC DAQ
1641 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1641

OR

donald.vandervaart@ncmail.net

By letting our voice be heard, we can do our part to stop global warming and create a clean, safe energy future for North Carolina, the nation and the world.

– – – – –

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.

Join Rainforest Action Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices , Rising Tide, Mountain Justice Summer, SEAC and a cast of thousands as we mobilize to stop Bank of America and Citi’s investments climate change and the dirty coal industry!

Science Daily — The eastern hemlock, a tall, long-lived coniferous tree that shelters river and streamside ecosystems throughout the eastern United States and Canada, is in serious danger of extinction because a tiny, non-native insect is literally sucking the life out of it.

Entomologists at Virginia Tech are now studying a beetle from Japan that may be a natural predator of Adelges tsugae, or hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Scientists hope the Japanese beetle will curb the rapid spread of the HWA without damaging forest ecosystems.

Virginia Tech leads the biological control efforts to curb the spread of HWA, which feeds on the cells that transfer and store nutrients in hemlock trees until their needles desiccate. “Mass application of pesticides would not be effective,” said Scott Salom, professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and HWA project leader. “Unlike the gypsy moth, which lives in tree canopies, you cannot spray pesticides over a forest in an aerial flight to kill the hemlock woolly adelgid, which lives at the base of newly formed needles.”

Salom and his colleagues traveled to Japan in 2006 to collect 300 adult insects and hundreds of larvae for evaluation at the Beneficial Insects Quarantine Laboratory at Virginia Tech after a scientist at the Osaka Museum of Natural History discovered an adelgid predator in the island country that had never previously been observed. The Japanese beetle does not currently have a scientific name.

Last year, Yale University researchers performed a series of DNA comparisons between HWA and other adelgid populations in China, Japan, and western North American and discovered that the insect plaguing eastern hemlocks originated in the Osaka region of Japan. Virginia Tech researchers are hopeful that the Japanese beetle now under quarantine in Blacksburg will be an effective natural enemy against the HWA because both originate from the same area, Salom said.

This follows more than a decade of research on the beetle’s North American cousin. In 1997, Salom’s research team imported Laricobius nigrinus, a tiny beetle from British Columbia, to evaluate its effectiveness and safety as a biological control agent. By the end of 2006, scientists at Virginia Tech, Clemson University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville had completed more than 22 research-based releases using protocols developed at a Virginia Tech insectory. In all, more than 17,000 British Columbia beetles were released in U.S. forests with encouraging results, in that their research shows that the beetle is establishing at most of the release locations.

Unlike other predators that have been released into the wild, such as the Asian lady beetle, the British Columbian and Japanese beetles only thrive on one food source. “If the beetles we introduce cannot feed or reproduce on other hosts, then the natural conclusion is that there is no risk,” Salom said.

American scientists first noticed the tiny, aphid-like insect in the West as early as the 1920s, but it was not until the 1950s that they spotted HWA producing its cottony egg masses near Richmond, Va. Unlike hemlock stands in Asia and in the western United States, eastern hemlocks did not co-evolve with an adelgid species and therefore never developed a natural immunity to the insect. Today, HWA infestations span more than half of the geographic range of eastern hemlocks. In Virginia, they have reportedly killed more than 90 percent of hemlocks in the Shenandoah Valley.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Virginia Tech.

The Sumter National Forest Service is in a quandary. It’s in a battle to preserve the pristine waters of the Chattooga River above the Georgia and S.C. U.S. Highway 28 bridge with canoeing and kayaking organizations who want the entire river, not just the waters below the Highway 28 bridge. Capitulation through litigation is the American way, I suppose.

I have walked the trails and fished the waters of this beautiful river many times. I have two oncerns.

Most of the sections of the Chattooga above the U.S. Highway 28 bridge are too narrow for rafters and fishermen to use simultaneously. If we think “road rage” is a problem, “river rage” might be worse.

My other concern is rampant un-American activity that by my definition is a blatant disregard for our environment by depositing litter anywhere we want to throw it.

Years ago, Keep America Beautiful ran environmental commercials featuring the Native American known as Iron Eyes Cody. The tagline for those commercials was “People start pollution, people can stop it.” This commercial stemmed the tide of un-American activity more than any other litter campaign.

Sadly, we’ve lost that environmental fervor today. If you need proof, walk the shoulders of our state highways. Iron Eyes Cody became known by millions as “The Crying Indian” as he watched litter floating down a river. If Sumter National Forest Service opens the upper portion of the Chattooga to commercial and private boaters, Iron Eyes Cody, if he were alive today, wouldn’t be shedding one tear, but two.

Bill Menees, Anderson

By Pam Cassady

pamcndl@bellsouth.net

When landowners decide to sell timber from their land, they usually do it because they want to make money. However, if they aren’t well informed, they could end up not making as much as they could.

“Landowners are losing lots of money,” said Bobby Warwick, a consulting forester based out of Bowling Green.

Warwick said he has many examples of instances where landowners are offered a price that is much lower than what their timber is actually worth.

Warwick said he once worked with a man who was planning to sell his timber for about $40,000.

“I told him, ‘If somebody will give you $40,000, there’s somebody who will give you more,’” Warwick recalled.

The man ended up selling his timber for over $100,000.

As a consulting forester, Warwick works with landowners to help them get the best price possible for their timber. Although he said many in the timber industry are honest, reputable businesses, it is easy to take advantage of people. Most landowners have no idea what the timber on their land is worth and don’t know how to find out. But finding out what you have before you sell it is important.

“You’ve got to know how many board feet you have,” Warwick said. If you don’t, “It’s like trying to sell your house and not knowing how many bedrooms, bathrooms and such that you have.”

Warwick, who has a degree in forestry from the University of Kentucky, said his job is to promote proper timber management and help landowners get the most out of their timber.

When Warwick is hired by a landowner, he will first do a walk-through on the land and point out the kinds of timber they have and begins to estimate how much of each kind they have. Knowing how much timber is actually on a piece of property is extremely important, as is knowing what kinds of timber you have.

Warwick said he usually encourages landowners to do a selective harvest instead of clear cutting. He will often point out that allowing trees to grow for longer is advantageous in the long run.

“My mission is to help landowners manage their timberlands for today and the future while at the same time obtaining the highest price possible for their timber,” Warwick said. “In the end, the landowner always wins.”

“I have a passion about it,” he added.

Warwick said he hates to see people taken advantage of and remembers a poor woman who took $8,000 for what was worth around $50,000.

When selling timber, it is important to be aware of the market as well. A landowner may not want to harvest a certain species if prices of that timber are down. They might be better off waiting. Warwick helps landowners consider these issues as well.

When Warwick is hired as a consultant and to help sell timber, he stays involved through the whole process, even monitoring the logging process.

Timber is the number two industry in the state of Kentucky and it is a growing business in Logan County.

“Logan County is a great county for timber harvesting,” Warwick said. “This is a county that grows a lot of good timber.”

This article was found on:
https://www.newsdemocratleader.com/articles/2007/09/28/news/news04.txt
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Thursday, September 27
Shelly Stiles
Shelly Stiles is the district manager for the Bennington County Conservation District.

You’ll be seeing a new bumper sticker around these parts shortly. It won’t have the punch of “Gut Deer” or “I’m Already Against the Next War,” but it will be a good sign.

It will indicate that the vehicle’s owner cares about water quality, forest biodiversity and working landscapes. It will read “Bennington County Sustainable Forest Consortium,” and in larger letters, “SFC.”

And just what might “SF” mean” (“C” of course, stands for “good question!” And one with a number of correct answers. All of them, however, share several concepts (though they may emphasize different ones).

Sustainable forestry protects the ongoing productivity of a forest’s marketable tree species (and perhaps other forest denizens such as medicinal herbs or wild mushrooms). It preserves native plant and animal biodiversity, clean water and clean air. In some areas, sustainable forestry might preserve cultural as well as ecological benefits — things like recreational opportunities, pristine vistas, or a sense of wildness.

It offers employment and investment opportunities to local residents. Sustainable forestry fairly values the efforts of those who labor in the woods, and the products they send to market. And most importantly, sustainable forestry is a long-term process, where success is gauged over several decades, even several generations.

This highfalutin’ abstraction can be brought down to earth, where forests grow. In practice, sustainable forestry means things like creating a management plan that ties everything together, from describing the forest’s ecological resources to outlining a family’s financial objectives. In practice, equipment operators practicing SF will protect forest soils from compaction and erosion by working on frozen ground, say, or avoiding steep slopes.

In practice, consulting foresters practicing SF will locate patch cuts deep in the woods to prevent colonization by invasive plants, or will remove or herbicide potential nearby invaders like honeysuckle before the harvest is begun. SF loggers will protect a forest’s mix of tree ages and species — and the animals adapted to that mix. SF landowners might have their products certified as sustainably grown by an independent organization, and reap financial benefits as a result. And that’s just the short list!

Also on the list of what sustainable forestry means is protecting water quality. The SF Consortium will explore this high-priority topic at an upcoming workshop on forest access roads, stream crossings, and water quality protection, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 6.

If you’re a forest landowner, logger, consulting forester or anyone interested in learning more about SF, you’re invited.

The hands-on workshop will show people how to construct and maintain access roads for all sorts of purposes. You’ll be able to examine five different temporary and permanent stream crossing structures on site. You’ll learn about state permit requirements and riparian buffers, and generally explore how to do the right thing by your woods most economically.

Presenters will include Gary Sabourin, watershed forester with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation; Alan Calfee, consulting forester (and owner, with his family, of the forest we’ll be visiting), and Nate Fice, Bennington County forester.

The $20 registration fee will cover morning refreshments and a bag lunch.

The consortium, new in 2007, is a collaborative between forest landowners, consulting foresters, loggers, the Bennington County Conservation District and the Bennington County Forester’s office.

Through the consortium, Nate Fice says, “we hope to get people connected to their forests and to think of their forests in a sustainable manner.”

Additional consortium workshops have already been scheduled, including a winter evening devoted to tree identification, a day-long workshop in April 2008 on non-traditional forest products, and an after-work walk focusing on woodland edible plants in late May 2008.

Contact Shelly Stiles at 442-2275 or bccd@sover.net for more information or to pre-register for the Oct. 6 workshop. Pre-registration by Oct. 3 is required.

Shelly Stiles is the district manager for the Bennington County Conservation District.

Land Conservation Strategies:
Landowner’s Options for Protecting Family Lands

Preserving family lands from future development can be a satisfying act of generosity for people committed to protecting the environment. Many valuable sites of historic importance, natural significance, and scenic beauty, protected today, would have been developed had it not been for the generosity of individuals, groups and companies who chose to donate their land to one of the public or private organizations which can accept land and assure that it will remain in its natural state.

For over 40 years, Heritage Conservancy has been working with landowners to preserve their family lands through a variety of techniques designed to carry out the landowner’s wishes. Some of these strategies also offer tax incentives for the landowner.

This guide will focus on the four most frequently used strategies: fee simple donation, conservation easement, bargain sale and conservation-based development.

Fee Simple Donation
A fee simple donation is the transfer of a property by deeding it directly to a charitable organization for conservation or other purposes. Tax benefits may apply to the donor.

Heritage Conservancy does not give accounting or legal advice, however, we can provide you with the following hypothetical calculations that you may adjust to your own use and discuss with your tax advisor regarding income tax deductibility.

Tax Benefits- Fee Simple
Example: If one (1) acre of land were appraised at $10,000 and if you were to DONATE it to a non-profit organization such as Heritage Conservancy, you would be able to claim a deduction from federal income taxes on the FULL VALUE up to 30% of your adjusted gross income. Assuming you were in the 35% tax bracket, you would save $3,500 in income taxes.

If you were unable to take advantage of the full $10,000 deduction in the year you donated the property, you could CARRY-FORWARD the unused deduction for up to five additional years for up to $3,500 per year until the full deduction was used up.

Conservation Easement Donation
A conservation easement is a legally binding covenant between current and future property owners and an organization such as the conservancy which preserves significant natural areas (i.e. stream valleys, farmland, woodland, wildlife habitat, unique plant communities) and special natural features of the property by restricting selected uses.

A conservation easement allows a property owner to retain ownership of his property, including the ability to pass the property on to his heirs or sell the property, while still providing for the site’s protection. It assures that future use of a property will be consistent with conservation purposes through specific clauses in the easement document. The property remains in private ownership and does not need to be opened to the public.

Tax Benefits- Conservation Easement
Example: A charitible deduction for donation of a conservation easement is valued through appraisal of the difference between highest and best use value of land (based on development potential under current zoning) and restricted value of the land.

Thus if: 10 acres of land is valued at $100,000 with development potential (highest and best use). The same land is valued at $25,000 with restrictions (the valuation will depend on how you restrict use, for instance it will be less if you allow for a building envelope for one residential lot).

The VALUE you GIVE AWAY is the conservation easement value: $75,000.

You then may claim the conservation easement value in the same way you would a fee simple gift, up to 30% of your adjusted gross income, with a possible five-year carry forward to allow you to use the full value of the gift.

In this scenario, if you were in the 35% tax bracket and your donation value is $75,000, your actual total savings in income tax would be $26,250. An easement runs with the property in perpetuity. A third party monitors the easement to assure compliance.

Bargain Sale
A bargain sale is the sale of a property to a qualified tax exempt organization or government entity for less than the fair market value. A bargain sale provides a tax benefit to the property owner as the difference between the appraised value and the actual sale price is a charitable contribution which is treated in the same manner as the previous scenarios.

Conservation-Based Development
Conservation-based development is a process in which development is driven by the preservation of the ecological values of the property as well as the achievement of the economic goals of the owner. This is accomplished by limiting future uses and regulating changes that can be made to the land while providing a reasonable return on the property owner’s investment in the land. This technique may use a combination of the above cited preservation tools to accomplish this goal.

In this process the property remains in private hands. The right to sell or transfer in any way remains with the property owner, subject to an easement. This preserves a significant portion of the original tract as “open space” and may afford tax benefits if an easement is donated.

Southern Forests Network | PO Box 941 | Asheville | NC | 28802

DUNGANNON — Residents are waiting for the next step in a proposed logging project in the Jefferson National Forest. The proposed timber sale, located on Dry Creek near Dungannon, was first announced last year. But the logging and burning of about 370 acres of wood in the Jefferson National Forest has been postponed while District Ranger Ron Bush of the Clinch Ranger District revises an environmental assessment, according to The Clinch Coalition, a group opposed to the project.

In August, Bush sent a letter to residents living near the site stating that he was withdrawing the project and revising the environmental assessment of the project. “The Forest Service has told members of the public that it intends to proceed with the project but would provide an additional 30-day period during which the public could raise objections before the agency makes a new decision,” according to The Clinch Coalition.

“Area residents and conservationists call for Ranger Bush to use this time to step back, to significantly reduce the scope of the project, and to fully address all of the serious concerns raised by the public, including concerns about logging on steep slopes, landslides, flooding, scarring the landscape from the intensive, heavily concentrated logging and burning operations, and the need for protecting the area for recreation, fishing and hunting, and for protecting rare species downstream,” said Diana Withen, president of The Clinch Coalition.

In July, the coalition and residents of Dungannon filed an appeal of the proposed logging plan. Residents said the many steep slopes, if scarred by logging and burning, could result in landslides and flooding. Bush could not be reached for comment.

Kingsport Times/News September 18, 2007
By CLIFFORD JEFFERY cjeffery@timesnews.net

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.

What: Join us for a CITIZEN’S hearing in Charlotte to speak out against expansion of the Cliffside Power Plant!

When: Tuesday October 16, 2007, 7pm

Why: To ask DAQ to deny Duke Energy’s Air Permit

Where: Myers Park Baptist Church, 1931 Selwyn Avenue – Charlotte, NC 28207

If you missed the NC Department of Air Quality hearing on Sept 18th in Forest City, NC, you still have a change to voice your opposition to the power plant expansion. Join us on October 16th, 2007 at a CITIZEN’S hearing against a new coal fired power. We’ll record everyone’s comments and send them to DAQ for inclusion in the official permit application.

As in September, Appalachian Voices will be organizing vans to take YOU to the public hearing from Boone, Asheville, and Charlotte. If you are interested in carpooling with us, please contact us at (828) 262-1500 or email {encode=”caitlen@appvoices.org” title=”caitlen@appvoices.org”} no later than Noon, Monday, October 15th. If you breathe air, we highly encourage you to attend.

We need your help on October 16th! Recently, the North Carolina Utilities Commission announced plans to allow Duke Energy to build a new 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant at its Cliffside facility in Rutherfordton, NC. If completed, this power plant will emit 312 million tons of carbon dioxide, the primary pollutant responsible for global warming, over its fifty year lifespan.

That’s equal to putting an additional one million cars on the roads for the next 50 years!

The state Department of Air Quality (DAQ) is now reviewing Duke’s air pollution permit application—the last significant hurdle for Duke before they start building the new coal plant.

Please join Appalachian Voices and other community members in taking this opportunity to tell DAQ to deny Duke’s air pollution permit. It is critical that we have a strong showing at this hearing, to let DAQ know that more coal power will take North Carolina in the wrong direction.

If you are unable to attend the citizens’ hearing but still want your VOICE heard please send all written comments to the following address by by October 31, 2007:

Donald Van der Vaart
ATTN: Air Permits Section
NC DAQ
1641 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1641

OR

donald.vandervaart@ncmail.net

By letting our voice be heard, we can do our part to stop global warming and create a clean, safe energy future for North Carolina, the nation and the world.

– – – – –

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.

I just dug this out of a “pile” of files on my desktop and thought it might be of interest. In June 2007, a group of organizations wrote a letter to the US Senate opposing any subsidies for coal-to-liquid industry expansion.

Appalachian Voices, Earthjustice, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, US Public Interest Research Group, Western Organization of Resource Councils

June 19, 2007

Dear Senator,

On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, we are writing to express our continued opposition to any mandates or incentives that would promote a coal-to-liquids industry, including loan guarantees, price collars, tax incentives, long term purchasing contracts, or other similar measures. With many options available to address global warming and dependence on oil, we cannot support subsidies for a technology that increases global warming pollution, costs billions in taxpayer dollars, increases coal mining, and uses massive amounts of freshwater.

Global warming is one of the greatest challenges facing the planet today. At a time when leading scientists are calling for significant reductions in global warming pollution, liquid coal produces double the global warming emissions of conventional petroleum fuels. Studies show that even with carbon capture and storage the global warming emissions of liquid coal range from 4% to 25% above our current fuel.

The harmful upstream impacts of creating a liquid coal industry would be significant. Large-scale deployment of coal-to-liquids would exacerbate the devastating effects of coal mining felt in many communities and ecosystems, including polluted air and water and devastated landscapes. Replacing 10% of our petroleum use with liquid coal would require a 43% increase in coal mining. Already the most environmentally destructive mining practice, mountaintop removal mining, has permanently buried more than 1,200 miles of streams and flattened over 500,000 acres in the Appalachian Mountains.

Furthermore, a study released earlier this year by MIT showed that to replace just 10% of our nation’s liquid transportation fuels with liquid coal would require a $70 billion investment. Our nation’s experiment with liquid coal synfuels in the 1980s was a major economic failure that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Now is the time to provide true vision in our nation’s energy policy, not relive the mistakes of the past.

Scientists have warned that we need to reduce global warming pollution 80% by 2050, a doable 2% decrease per year. Reaching this goal will require us to develop and use transportation fuels that have a substantially lower carbon emissions footprint than today’s petroleum-based fuels, not increase our use of dirtier fuels. Every public or private dollar invested in coal-to-liquids is a dollar unavailable for investment in efficient vehicles, improved transportation systems, smart growth and sustainably-made renewable fuels.

For these reasons, we urge you to oppose any liquid coal provisions that would provide mandates, loan guarantees, tax incentives, long term contracts, or any other incentives to jumpstart the industry.

Sincerely,

Mary Anne Hitt
Executive Director
Appalachian Voices

Marty Hayden
Legislative Director
Earthjustice

Erich Pica
Director, Domestic Campaigns
Friends of the Earth

Edward W. Stowe III
Senior Legislative Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

John Coequyt
Energy Policy Specialist
Greenpeace USA

Michele Boyd
Legislative Director, Energy Program
Public Citizen

Debbie Sease
National Campaigns Director
Sierra Club

Alden Meyer
Director of Strategy and Policy
Union of Concerned Scientists

Anna Aurilio
Director, Washington, DC Office
US Public Interest Research Group

Patrick Sweeney
Regional Director
Western Organization of Resource Councils

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.

What: Public Hearing about Duke Energy Cliffside Power Plant Air Permit

When: Tuesday, September 18th, 6pm

Why: To ask DAQ to deny Duke Energy’s Air Permit

Where: Chase High School, 1603 Chase High School Rd, Forest City, NC (45 minutes east of Hendersonville)

Appalachian Voices will be organizing vans to take YOU to the public hearing from Boone, Asheville, and Charlotte. If you are interested in carpooling with us, please contact us at (828) 262-1500 or email {encode=”caitlen@appvoices.org” title=”caitlen@appvoices.org”} no later than Noon, Monday, September 17. If you breathe air, we highly encourage you to attend.

We need your help on September 18! Recently, the North Carolina Utilities Commission announced plans to allow Duke Energy to build a new 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant at its Cliffside facility in Rutherfordton, NC. If completed, this power plant will emit 312 million tons of carbon dioxide, the primary pollutant responsible for global warming, over its fifty year lifespan.

That’s equal to putting an additional one million cars on the roads for the next 50 years!

The state Department of Air Quality (DAQ) is now reviewing Duke’s air pollution permit application—the last significant hurdle for Duke before they start building the new coal plant.

Please join Appalachian Voices and other community members in taking this opportunity to tell DAQ to deny Duke’s air pollution permit. It is critical that we have a strong showing at this hearing, to let DAQ know that more coal power will take North Carolina in the wrong direction.

If you are unable to attend the hearing but still want your VOICE heard please send all written comments to the following address by by October 31, 2007:

Donald Van der Vaart
ATTN: Air Permits Section
NC DAQ
1641 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1641

OR

donald.vandervaart@ncmail.net

By letting our voice be heard, we can do our part to stop global warming and create a clean, safe energy future for North Carolina, the nation and the world.

– – – – –

See our website for more information about the proposed Cliffside Powerplant or air pollution in general.