The Southern Highland Reader

RALEIGH–Avram Friedman, Sylva resident and Executive Director of the clean air activist organization the Canary Coalition was one of six protestors arrested last weekend at the North Carolina governor’s mansion in Raleigh.

Here’s a brief piece from the Raleigh News and Observer.

Below is an essay from Friedman titled “Why I chose to be arrested”:

On Saturday, October 24 there were thousands of demonstrations around the world, in more than 130 nations, millions of people, gathering to focus attention on the climate catastrophe unfolding in our lifetimes. About two hundred years ago, prior to the industrial revolution, the earth’s atmosphere contained roughly 270 parts per million of carbon dioxide. The worldwide scientific community has reached virtual consensus that to avoid major disruption to life-support systems there needs to be a sustained level of less than 350 parts per million of C02. But, today, due largely to the burning of fossil fuels in industrial processes and transportation, the level of C02 has risen to 390. If we don’t act quickly to change our methods and our habits, we are risking the viability of life as we know it on this earth.

In North Carolina, we have a special mission because this state is the home of Duke Energy, one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases in the world. And while more than 100 new coal-burning power plants have been canceled over the past three years in the United States of America, due to climate, pollution and economic concerns, Duke Energy is going full-steam ahead with construction of its mammoth 800 megawatt Unit 6 at Cliffside, in Rutherford County, about 50 miles west of Charlotte.

We have to be working on a plan to phase out all 14 existing utility-owned coal-burning power plants in North Carolina in the next decade or less, along with all coal plants everywhere. But, to begin construction on a new coal plant at this late hour is a form of extreme psychological denial.

Flying in the face of logic and reason, almost like a spiteful and willful child, Jim Rogers and Duke Energy continue construction at Cliffside. Construction at Cliffside continues even though energy consumption in North Carolina is declining and will continue to decline into the foreseeable future due to advancements in energy efficiency and due to conservation efforts.

Even though the latest report by the U.S. Geological Survey reveals that national retrievable coal reserves are diminishing rapidly and the cost of coal will inevitably soon rise beyond practical economical thresholds, construction at Cliffside continues.

Despite the fact that North Carolina has vast wind energy resources and the cost of building large-scale wind projects is lower per megawatt than building coal plants, with far fewer health, environmental and economic liabilities, construction at Cliffside continues.

Despite the fact that North Carolina has tremendous solar energy potential with the cost of solar technology diminishing on almost a daily basis, Duke Energy continues to feed precious financial resources into an outdated and horribly polluting technology at Cliffside.

Despite the fact that burning coal has saturated the environment with mercury, causing fetal brain damage, autism and learning disabilities in children; burning coal is causing acid rain, killing the biodiversity of our mountainous, forested and agricultural regions; burning coal is responsible for deadly high ozone levels causing asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease and early death for tens of thousands of people each year, Duke energy continues construction at Cliffside.

Despite diminishing fresh water supplies to feed a growing population in the region, Duke Energy continues to build a power plant that will use millions of gallons of water each day, and alter the temperature of water used for cooling, threatening habitat and life-support systems downstream of the plant.

Despite wind-blown coal-burning waste ash piles, failed slurry pond dams, massive and catastrophic toxic spills, despite the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining, construction at Cliffside has relentlessly continued.

Despite federal law and court decisions regulating carbon dioxide emissions as a pollutant, and despite the fact that Cliffside Unit 6 will produce 6 million tons of CO2 each year, for the next fifty years, as much as a million cars, yet construction at Cliffside continues.

Like an undisciplined and spoiled child, used to getting whatever it wants, despite the deepest recession since the Great Depression, when people are having to make choices between paying rent, buying food or buying medicine, Duke Energy stamps its feet and demands that the Utilities Commission raise electrical rates to pay for an utterly unnecessary and wasteful power plant at Cliffside so it can sell more energy to increase its profits by expanding its area of monopoly into new territories.

One would think that given the weight of all these reasons to stop Cliffside that our public servants in the state government would rise to the occasion to protect the citizenry from this destructive, childish behavior. That’s their job, isn’t it? After all, Beverley Perdue, during her campaign to be elected Governor of North Carolina spoke out against the construction of the Cliffside power plant.

But, something happened between then and now. About three-quarters of a million dollars in campaign contributions made its way into the electoral process from the utility industry. In 2008, Beverly Purdue’s campaign alone received about $26,000 from The Duke Energy Political Action Committee and donations directly from Duke Energy executive officers. Since then, Governor Perdue has dropped her opposition to Cliffside. Business-as-usual politics, I suppose.

But, these are not business-as-usual times and we can’t allow a set of disproportionate campaign contributions destroy our children’s future. So, on October 24, 2009, about 150 demonstrators delivered a message to the Perdue Administration that she has a greater obligation than fulfilling the every wish and dream of Duke Energy. She has a responsibility to the people of North Carolina to protect public health and the environment by beginning to phase out all coal plants in this state, starting with Cliffside. She has an obligation to stand up to Duke Energy and say “This madness stops now!” She has an obligation to come out of hiding and meet with members of the environmental community to discuss steps to effectively address climate change and energy issues. She has an obligation to exercise vision and work with others to plan a future that is sustainable, replete with high-paying green technology jobs, clean air and water, renewable energy deployment, wind farms, solar roofs, economic incentives for investment in efficiency. She has an obligation to dramatically reduce North Carolina’s carbon footprint. She has an obligation to stop Cliffside. She has an obligation to represent the public interest.

The demonstration in Raleigh, on October 24, was coordinated by Greenpeace and NC WARN with support from the Canary Coalition, Clean Air Carolina, Clean Water for NC, NC Green Party, NC Fair Share, NC Progressive Democrats and Southern Energy Network.

Six people, Dick Paddock of Chapel Hill; Jean Larson of Asheville, Keval Kaur Khalsa of Durham; John Allen, a UNC-Chapel Hill student from Winston-Salem, Jim Warren of Efland and myself, Avram Friedman, of Sylva, with the support of 150 demonstrators across the street, chose to deliver this message through non-violent civil disobedience, by crossing a police line in front of the Governor’s mansion, on Blount Street, in Raleigh. For some of us it was the second arrest this year. I want to thank the Capital Police for their professional behavior in peacefully and respectfully arresting us. I guess many of them have children too.

Series: cliffside, Duke rate hikes

SYLVA–Superior Court Judge Dennis Winner today dismissed a lawsuit filed against the town of Sylva by clean air advocacy group the Canary Coalition.

The Coalition, along with four Sylva residents, filed suit against the town of Sylva in early summer, alleging that the town gave inadequate public notice of hearings before passing a zoning ordinance amendment that directly impacts Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co.

Judge Winner disagreed.

Read background information from us here.

Read more coverage from Justin Goble at the Sylva Herald here.

STATEWIDE–The NC Utilities Commission is holding a series of public hearings throughout North Carolina on Duke Energy’s application for a rate increase to pay for continued construction on its controversial new coal-burning power plant at Cliffside and other infrastructure investments. There will be a hearing in Marion, on Thursday, September 17, 7 PM, at the McDowell County Courthouse.

Opponents of both the rate increase and the Cliffside coal plant will be holding a press conference on the lawn of the courthouse prior to the hearing, beginning at 6:15 PM. Present will be local Duke Energy ratepayers as well as representatives of the Canary Coalition, Mountain Voices Alliance, NC Interfaith Power & Light (a program of the NC Council of Churches), Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Western North Carolina Alliance.

Duke Energy is seeking a 12.6% overall increase in revenues from this rate hike. But, some sectors will be hit harder than others. Residential ratepayers are being targeted for a 13.5% increase. This is on top of a 4.5% increase already granted by the Utilities Commission in August to compensate Duke for coal they purchased last year at a high price. So, residential customers would experience a total increase of 18% if the Utilities Commission grants Duke Energy’s application. Fees for municipal street lighting will rise a whopping 16.7% plus the 4.5% fuel fee, potentially driving local taxes higher to help city and county governments make ends meet.

Next Tuesday, September 22, at 7 PM, there will be another public hearing on the same matter in Franklin. Again, there will be a press conference, 6:15, prior to the hearing on the lawn in front of the Macon County Courthouse.

SYLVA–Expansion of operations at a century-old plant in downtown Sylva continues, but so does a lawsuit concerning that expansion.

And given that Jackson Paper’s newly re-issued air quality permit shows that the plant feeds a good bit more than wood chips into its boilers, the Canary Coalition, a western North Carolina-based clean air advocacy group, is unlikely to let the issue go quietly into the night.

“Even without burning coal or [tire-derived fuel], the list of toxic chemicals, including those listed by the Division of Air Quality as carcinogens, coming from the smokestack right now is considerable,” says Coalition Executive Director Avram Friedman. “I was very surprised to see the hydrogen chloride content.  This forms hydrochloric acid in the atmosphere.  The [Division of Air Quality] informed me that the expansion may cause Jackson Paper to pass the threshold (10 tons annually of any single hazardous pollutant or a total of 25 tons combined hazardous pollutants) that defines the plant as a “major” source of emissions of hazardous air pollutants.”

The Coalition, along with four Sylva residents, filed suit against the town of Sylva in early summer, alleging that the town gave inadequate public notice of hearings before passing a zoning ordinance amendment that directly impacts Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co.

The town’s attorney petitioned for dismissal on August 31, arguing that the town gave proper notice and that the plaintiffs have no standing to sue. Superior court judge Dennis Winner has yet to rule.

The backstory is this: Jackson Paper is an unlikely target for environmental activism. The company produces 100% recycled corrugated medium for the manufacture of cardboard containers, and is the state’s largest recycler. The company’s boilers are fired primarily by wood chips – a fact the company has trumpeted – and its closed-loop system eliminates the liquid effluent that is a problem with so many paper plants.

But the company’s past air quality permits have allowed it to burn any number of things, including coal, to power its boilers. Company officials privately defend these broad permits, saying that while wood is their main fuel source and is unlikely to change, it would be unwise business to limit their responses to future contingencies.

This is the crux of the issue. What the paper company sees as wise business planning, the Canary Coaliton sees as irresponsible stewardship. The Coalition believes that the company should voluntarily limit fuel sources, and that the town owes it to its citizens to force it to do so if possible.

This is the crux of the issue. What the paper company sees as wise business planning, the Canary Coaliton sees as irresponsible stewardship. The Coalition believes that the company should voluntarily limit fuel sources, and that the town owes it to its citizens to force it to do so if possible.

Earlier this year, when Jackson Paper and several government agencies announced an expansion that would bring over 60 jobs to Sylva, one incidental necessity was a town zoning ordinance change to allow a taller structure.
The Canary Coalition suggests that that need for a zoning change might have been the town’s only opportunity to tighten restrictions on what the company burns in its boilers.

The town was low-key about the zoning change – indeed it probably thought the change was no big deal. It first asked its planning board to consider the matter, and then, when it decided to proceed with the change, gave timely notice of eventual public hearings. But it didn’t mention Jackson Paper in those notices.

By the time anyone who was interested caught on, the public hearings had gone by and the zoning change had passed.

The town maintained that because it wasn’t issuing a variance, but rather changing the ordinance altogether, that it wasn’t necessary to mention Jackson Paper by name.

The Canary Coalition said it was clear who the change was for – Jackson Paper is just about the only industrial game in town – and said it possessed internal town memos that pre-date the amendment and mention the paper company by name.

The Coalition asked the town board to rescind its zoning change and reopen public hearings.

In response, the town asked the paper company to take part in a voluntary public forum to answer questions, but declined to rescind its decision. The coalition sued.

Jackson Paper, for its part, avoided the forum and hired an Asheville PR firm to smooth its path with local newspapers, and to initiate an ad campaign through the same papers.

And when its renewed air quality permit arrived — good through 2014 — the document showed that the company will burn up to 40% non wood chip material in its boilers.

Jackson Paper’s defense will be that what comes out of its smokestacks, at the end of the day, meets state air quality standards.

Friedman acknowledges this, but adds: “… more than 30,000 people in the US die prematurely each year from coal that is burned completely legally and within the guidelines of federal and state regulations.”

“Jackson Paper is at a point where they have to decide whether they are going to be true stewards of the environment or simply attempt to maintain that image through an expensive public relations campaign.  60 jobs may sound good to alot of people right now. But, if our children, our elderly and well, all of us, are subjected to continued exposure to toxic air pollutants, the cost in health to the community will far out-weigh the short term economic benefit of those jobs.”

Click here for an Asheville Citizen-Times piece on Saturday’s Relay for Clean Air, an annual event sponsored by the Canary Coalition.

An excerpt:

[Sylva architect Odell] Thompson, of Cullowhee, is one of about 80 cyclists, runners and walkers participating in the sixth annual Relay for Clean Air … sponsored by the Canary Coalition, a nonprofit group focused on air quality. “For me, it is important to make a point that we want the air to be cleaner than it is,” said Thompson, who rides his bike to work in Sylva three or four times a week. “It is important to be seen and heard.”

The relay covers 100 miles, broken into 37 segments, from the Smokies to Asheville. A relay flag will be passed between participants from one segment to the next, culminating in a march up Biltmore Avenue around 9 p.m.

STATEWIDE–Federal Judge Lacy Thornburg, of Webster, dismissed on Thursday an environmental lawsuit challenging Duke Energy’s construction of a $2.4 billion addition to its Cliffside coal-fired power plant.

Rather than a judgment on the validity of the suit, however, Thornburg’s ruling seems to be a technicality. Thornburg noted that both state and federal courts are being asked to rule on the same issue, and so is basically removing himself from the picture so that the state courts can rule.

The next ruling on the issue will be handed down by a state administrative court.

The lawsuit was brought by five environmental organizations, including the Canary Coalition, which is headquartered in Sylva and Asheville.

The Canary Coalition recently brought suit against the Town of Sylva regarding a rezoning action that benefitted Sylva’s Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co. That suit has yet to be resolved.

From the Charlotte Observer:

Five environmental groups filed the federal suit last year, claiming Duke illegally began work on the plant before a full review of the stringency of its pollution controls. Cliffside is 60 miles west of Charlotte.

The groups maintained that, contrary to a ruling by state regulators, Cliffside will be a major source of toxic pollutants, such as mercury, and so is required to install the most effective controls available.

Thornburg said last December that the environmental groups “might be right”. He said Thursday that the groups can sue again in Federal court if the upcoming state ruling isn’t to their liking.

Duke Energy claimed that Thornburg’s decision shows that their side of the story — that Cliffside will be plenty clean — is valid. A representative of the Southern Environmental Law Center, a party to the suit, said that Thornburg’s ruling basically puts a decision off to a later day.

SYLVA–Officials at Jackson Paper Manufacturing Company in Sylva said Thursday that a new state-of-the-art boiler, planned for phase two of the company’s announced expansion, is a wood-burning system.

“It would be extraordinarily expensive to convert for use with other fuel sources,” said Lydia Carrington, spokesperson for the company.

Jackson Paper’s air quality permits allow it to burn coal, rubber pellets or natural gas, as long as it meets current air quality standards.

The boiler will be housed in a new addition to the Jackson Paper mill, for which the Sylva Town Board recently amended its industrial zoning regulations regarding structure height.

That change brought about complaints and eventually a lawsuit from four Sylva residents and the Sylva-based Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group. Avram Friedman, Director of the Coalition, contends that the Sylva Town Board gave improper notice of the public hearings it held before making the zoning change. He argues that the zoning change was the only leverage town residents had to prevent Jackson Paper from ever burning coal or rubber pellets at its downtown factory.

Friedman asked the board to voluntarily rescind the zoning change and restart the process, but the board refused. The board did vote by a 3-2 margin to invite Jackson Paper to a public forum to discuss its intentions, but the company has so far declined to accept.

Friedman called the invitation “meaningless” and the board, along with the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, “irresponsible”. County commissioners approved a $500,000 loan package for Jackson Paper two weeks ago.

Jackson Paper is the county’s third-largest employer. It manufactures corrugating medium, used to make cardboard, from 100-percent recycled cardboard. It is North Carolina’s largest producer of 100-percent recycled paper. Jackson Paper’s current system uses wood chips as fuel to fire its boiler, scrubbers to pull ash from the exhaust, and a closed-loop system to make unnecessary the release of wastewater.

The Canary Coalition is concerned that Jackson Paper might one day choose a different fuel source.

Supply sources for wood chips can fluctuate, and Jackson Paper recently lost a major source of chips when Sylva’s T&S Hardwoods closed its doors. Wood chips, however, are considerably less expensive than coal, rubber pellets and natural gas, and rubber pellets, made from recycled car tires, can be hard to get.

Jackson Paper’s Carrington also stressed that the second phase of the plant expansion remained contingent upon continued market demand for the company’s product, and on the country’s economy.