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Air & Energy Issues
North Carolina suffers from bad air. High levels of ozone and particulates have been linked to asthma attacks in children and early death in adults. Air pollution harms the natural as well as the human environment, killing or weakening trees and wildlife in our mountain forests. And there is nowhere to hide: even the state's wilderness areas are regularly socked in with smog. At the other end of the state, coastal fish are contaminated with mercury that is emitted into the air and falls back into our rivers and estuaries.
In North Carolina, ozone and particulates come from two major sources: power plants and motor vehicles. The federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and state air quality laws place some limits on emissions from both sources. In particular, in 2002 the North Carolina General Assembly adopted the Clean Smokestacks Act, calling for significant reductions in emissions from power plants by 2013. However, greater reductions are needed to control mercury emissions.
Beyond the famous criteria pollutants that receive most of the attention in the news, federal and state laws restrict emissions of another 188 "hazardous air pollutants" that can cause cancer and other serious health problems. Finally, international scientific consensus holds that human emissions of carbon dioxide have begun to trigger significant shifts in world climate. In 2005, the NC General Assembly established a state Global Warming Study Commission to explore ways North Carolina can address our emissions of greenhouse gases—likely to become over time the most weighty air pollution problem we face.
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