The Southern Highland Reader

REGIONAL–It’s a familiar complaint in the mountains: tax money, like water, runs downhill to Raleigh and never comes back.

The Asheville Citizen-Times‘ Joel Burgess contributed a history yesterday of western North Carolina’s under-representation in high-power state politics, quoting WCU faculty member Richard Starnes along the way and naming Jackson County’s Lacy Thornburg as an exception to the rule.

Here’s an excerpt:

With a few notable exceptions, including former House Speaker Liston Ramsey and Govs. Jim Holshouser and Dan Moore, modern mountain politicians have struggled to make a dent in Raleigh’s power structure. Reasons trace back centuries, scholars say, and range from geography to old grudges.“It has to do with the low population and also that WNC has often charted its own political path,” said Richard Starnes, head of the history department at Western Carolina University.

-and-

The list of western politicians who have held great sway in the Tar Heel State largely begins and ends with one man — former House Speaker [Liston] Ramsey.

Read the story here.

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.

STATE/REGIONAL–Federal Judge Lacy Thornburg, a Webster resident, will retire in August.

The Raleigh News and Observer reports today that Thornburg announced his plans in a letter to court employees.

The 79-year-old Thornburg has served for 14 years on the federal bench and also served two terms as N.C. attorney general, 16 years as a Superior Court judge and three terms in the state House.

In a recent high-profile decision, Thornburg ruled in favor of the state of North Carolina in its lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority, concluding that pollution from coal-burning plants was having a negative impact upon North Carolina residents, and ordering the TVA to install pollution-control systems in four plants in east Tennessee.

President Barack Obama will appoint Thornburg’s replacement.

STATEWIDE–State air regulators on Friday granted Duke Energy’s request to treat the new 800-megawatt Cliffside 6 power generating unit it is building west of Charlotte as a “minor source” of pollution.

The designation could allow Duke to sidestep the public process of analyzing and installing the most stringent controls to reduce hazardous pollutants such as mercury. That issue is still before the federal court, and the Division of Air Quality’s decision will allow Duke lawyers to argue that federal courts no longer have jurisdiction in the matter.

Environmentalists reacted angrily to the decision.

“Today’s permitting decision … puts the health of North Carolina citizens at risk and puts North Carolina out of step with the national trend away from coal,” said Elyse Jung, of the N.C. Sierra Club.

Avram Friedman, of Sylva, Director of the Canary Coalition, wrote this, in an open letter to Governor Perdue: “Plans for building new coal burning power plants are being abandoned throughout the rest of the country. There is no reason for you to allow Duke Energy to give North Carolina the stigma of being one of the last bastions of dirty coal.”

Duke Energy framed the decision as proof that it is becoming a more responsible corporate citizen, and that the decision was appropriate given the current economic climate.

Here’s an excerpt from a story in Saturday’s Raleigh News and Observer:

A coalition of environmental groups sued last year, challenging Duke’s construction of a major pollution source without an analysis of the maximum pollution controls needed. In December, U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg sided with the environmental groups and ruled that Duke was “simply refusing to comply with the controlling law.”

Read the N&O’s coverage from Wade Rawlins here.

Release from the Southern Environmental Law Center

Earlier release from Canary Coalition vowing non-violent protest

STATEWIDE–Federal judge Lacy Thornburg, of Webster, ruled in favor of North Carolina in its lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority yesterday, and ordered the TVA to install pollution control systems on its four plants closest to the North Carolina border.

From Clarke Morrison’s story in the Asheville Citizen-Times:

Judge Lacy Thornburg said in his order that pollution from TVA plants harms the health of North Carolina residents.

“I’m pleased that the court ordered the TVA to clean up air pollution coming from its plants closest to North Carolina,” said Attorney General Roy Cooper, who sued the giant utility in 2006. “This will help our air, our health and our travel and tourism economy.”

The lawsuit claimed pollution from the TVA’s plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky drifts into North Carolina and harms the health of people living here while degrading the environment.

The lawsuit seeks to force TVA to make reductions of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and soot similar to those required of utilities in North Carolina by the Clean Smokestacks Act.