The Adirondack Council

News Release

Report Calls for Pollution Cuts at Least as Good as President Bush’s 
Clear Skies Initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002

ELIZABETHTOWN, NY -- A newly released report prepared by representatives of eight southern states calls for new, federal legislation to curb the smokestack pollution that causes acid rain.

"We are pleased to see that our neighbors in the South are echoing precisely what we have already told Congress," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "The southern and middle Appalachian Mountains are experiencing the same kinds of damage to their high-elevation forests and streams that we have documented in the Adirondacks. Now, they are also calling for the same solution."

The final report by the Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative, which just became available on the internet, states:

"The SAMI states support and will promote strong national multi-pollutant legislation for electric utility plants to assure significant sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides reductions, both in and outside the SAMI region. This national, multi-pollutant legislation should result in no less than the reductions for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides represented by the [Bush] Administration’s Clear Skies Initiative."

According to the report, such reductions are needed:

To reduce acid deposition poisoning streams in the central and northern part of the SAMI region

To protect high-elevation spruce-fir forests from destruction by acid rain

To improve visibility from parks (Shenandoah NP, Great Smoky Mountains NP, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.) and from residential areas

The report also notes that SAMI states cannot hope to reach their goal of ending damage from acid rain and poor visibility without help from states in the Midwest. Thus, there is a need for nation legislation: "SAMI concludes that its mission cannot be accomplished without emission reductions in states outside the SAMI region." SAMI states include North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.

"This should be a big political boost for the fight against acid rain in Washington, DC," Houseal said. "Congress now has large constituencies from the North and the South demanding immediate action to reduce power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The time has come for Congress to find that middle ground and seize it. Given everything we have learned about this problem over the past 30 years, and our certainty about how to fix it, there is no excuse for further delay."

According to the report, SAMI was founded to develop a better understanding of the complex air quality situation in the Southeast, and to recommend ways to remedy existing problems and prevent future ones in and around national parks and other sensitive areas. The report is available at the SAMI website: www.saminet.org

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.