State of the Canary Address

June 21, 2006

Thank you all for coming to the sixth annual membership meeting of the Canary Coalition.  I want to extend a special thanks to our Board members for lending their names to our organization during the past year.  Jean Larson has been invaluable in several capacities, writing grant applications, staffing tables, helping with the planning and implementing of the Energy at the Crossroads Tour.  Dr.Marsha Hammond has put a considerable amount of time and effort into fundraising activities and chaired at least one meeting when I was unavailable. Marsha and Ted Campbell have allowed us the use of their homes in Asheville for meetings, Will Harlan has given the Canary Coalition substantial publicity through his high profile ultra-running, displaying the Canary logo on his tee shirt as he chalks up his continuous string of victories and through Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, of which he is editor.  Larry Nestler, the Chairman of our Board, has always been available for legal consultations when we needed him.  The efforts of many people came together in making the Canary Coalition grow, this year.

We have been fortunate to have Mark Ginsberg working with us as a part-time staff member in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Mark was the former Executive Director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association before beginning work with us. His experience and connectivity have given the Canary Coalition a new and effective presence in the state’s capitol and most densely populated region of North Carolina.  Also joining our staff is Mike Cherin who has been working to expand our membership into new geographical areas.

The Canary Coalition also benefited from the Duke University Stanback Internship program this year and we’re most fortunate to have Kok Yew Lee working with us this summer, from that program. Kok Yew is working tirelessly on a comprehensive research project that will quantify and document how air pollution costs jobs in North Carolina and elsewhere. The report resulting from his research will become a valuable tool for the entire environmental community in refuting industrial claims that the installation of emission control equipment costs jobs due to its initial expense.  His technical knowledge of computers has also been extremely helpful in our office. Kok Yew’s positive attitude about everything has made him a pleasure to work with.  And, by the way, he has a black belt in Tai Kwon Do, so don’t mess with him.

The Canary Coalition’s membership has increased to more than 780 so far this year, a 15% increase over last year.  Among the new members are prominent organizations such as the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance in North Carolina and Airaware of Indiana. We count each organization as only one member, so the numbers can be deceptive.  The Canary Coalition’s growth rate is strong.

There is good reason for our growth this year.  Public concern over air quality and climate change issues has grown, as it should.  The years of 2005 and 2006 are clearly years of immense importance, a crossroads in the decision-making process that will determine the fate of human health and the environment for generations to come.  Electric utility companies, with the help of political allies on the state and federal levels are submitting applications for permits to build a new generation of coal-burning and nuclear power plants throughout the nation, with the highest concentration in the Southeast to meet projected future energy demands.  At the same time, advances in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are pointing in a different direction. An intense political struggle is evolving around this crossroads issue and the Canary Coalition is in the thick of it, working to develop a strong, organized public response favoring responsible energy choices that will preserve public health and the environmental for future generations.

In December of 2005, Mary Olson of the national organization Nuclear Information and Resource Services (NIRS) joined one of our tours to the TVA wind farm pilot project at Buffalo Mountain, Tennessee.  During that excursion we discussed the possibility of a speaking tour throughout the southeast to bring to light the nature of the energy crossroads that has emerged at this time.  As a result The Canary Coalition formed a collaborative partnership with NIRS to organize and carry out the Energy at the Crossroads Tour.  Subsequently, the organizational effort was joined by Ned Doyle, of WNCW’s Our Southern Community and organizer of the annual Southeast Energy and Environment Expo.  The tour would focus on promoting the Energy Future Resolution, a demand that state legislatures create a study commission to determine the least cost method of meeting future energy demands, including the costs of health and environmental impact, the cost of the full fuel cycle, including waste handling, and the cost of decommissioning of power plants.  The resolution also mandates that no licenses for power plant construction be granted except as consistent with the results of the study.  The tour would use fun and humor to convey its message, although its purpose could not be more serious. Our goal is to energize the public, encourage involvement and ultimately redirect the nation’s energy priorities from the destructive, polluting methods of the past to a renewable, energy efficient future.

In March, at the first stop of the tour, in Asheville, NC the tour gained the support of twenty community organizations.  Our press conference was covered by WLOS and several local newspapers.   Billy Jonas entertained the plus-100 crowd at the UNCA campus. The first performance of the mock TV energy panel discussion drew continuous laughter.  Many people signed on to the Energy Future Resolution and took copies home to get more signatures.  The tour was a hit! 

We then moved on to successful tour stops in Charlotte and Raleigh in April and May, gaining television coverage in both cities. In Raleigh the Tour was covered by National Public Radio and aired nationally on All Things Considered.  Meanwhile the Energy Future Resolution was introduced as legislation by NC Representative Pricey Harrison of Winston-Salem. The Energy Future Bill, HB 2812 now has 62 co-sponsors in the 120 member House of Representatives.  We are off to a good start.

The Energy at the Crossroads Tour will continue in Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

As mentioned earlier, the Canary Coalition has continued its series of Buffalo Mountain Tours in its effort to promote wind energy in North Carolina and elsewhere, an effort that has gained in its significance as power companies have applied for new coal and nuclear construction permits.  Our latest trip was on June 10^th and we will be organizing more in conjunction with TVA later this summer.

The Canary Coalition further entered into the realm of transportation issues this past year. In cooperation with civic architect Odell Thompson, we’ve introduced the concept of a state-wide public transportation system, in the form of a proposed monorail system that would connect the entire University of NC and all the communities in-between from the mountains to the coast.  While we continue to support “clean cars” legislation, this doesn’t go far enough in answering the problem of mobile-source air pollution.  Due to the nature of urban sprawl, people are living further from their places of work, shopping and entertainment.  More miles are being driven per capita, more than compensating for the savings in pollution gained by driving cleaner cars.  The long-term solution has to be more comprehensive, addressing the fundamental, root causes of wasted energy due to our lifestyles and lack of urban planning.  Planning communities to be walkable and bicycle friendly is essential to a real solution.  Also, designing communities around a centralized transportation-hub system maximizes efficiency and greatly limits the need for prolific automobile use.  This is the approach taken by the Canary Coalition in its statewide transportation proposal.  This proposal uses the principles of economy of scale and pooling of multiple community and government entity financial resources to reduce costs and to make this necessary infrastructure more affordable.  Our plan is to introduce this concept to one community at a time through personal conferences with local political leaders and through local media coverage.  The Macon County News delivered a two-page spread of our concept in May, causing a spirited discussion throughout that community.  This type of discussion is exactly what needs to take place at this time.

The news hasn’t been all good this year. We suffered a setback in the legislature this year, as well.  Although the Canary Coalition and six other prominent groups lobbied for a Bill of Disapproval to reverse the Environmental Management’s Decision, no legislators were willing to step forward to introduce the legislation in this session and the state’s New Source Review rules were weakened, as a result.  So, once more older industries have been able to postpone the installation of modern emission control systems despite modernizing or expanding.  No one really knows how many lives will be shortened or what will be the extent of the additional environmental damage caused by this rule change, but it’s inexcusable that some of the established organizations in the environmental community were a party to this so-called compromise and essentially blocked legislative action to reverse it.  This brings to light a new element of adversity we are facing in the environmental community: the co-opting of established organizations by interests who are in conflict with environmental progress.  This is a dangerous trend at such a crucial time because the public can be easily confused into thinking that progress is being made when there is none, if a prominent environmental organization gives its undeserved stamp of approval to poor legislation or inadequate regulatory action.  Another manifestation of this problem is that we are seeing spokespeople for some of these same established environmental organizations lending credence to the concept of so-called “Clean Coal” technology, in the form of power plants using gasified coal, and lending credence to the concept of nuclear power as a so-called “greenhouse gas-free technology”, ignoring the health and environmental devastation caused by mountaintop removal mining, the polluting process of coal gasification, the greenhouse gas and polluting processes involved in the manufacturing of nuclear fuel, the unsolvable problem of shipping and storing nuclear waste, or the potential for more Three-Mile-Island or Chernobyl-type accidents.    The scientific community warns us that there is perhaps a ten-year window of opportunity to reverse climate change by altering energy consumption and polluting habits developed by the industrial world.  We don’t have time for backward or inadequate compromises. We have to move relentlessly forward, seeking real solutions and not turn back toward the failed technologies of coal and nuclear power as if there were suddenly some magical solutions to the problems their continued use poses to the health of people and the planet.  The only real solution is to impose stronger regulations as we phase out obsolete, polluting methods of producing electricity, while phasing in energy efficiency, conservation measures and clean, safe, renewable technologies. The Canary Coalition will continue to speak out whenever misleading statements are made and used by industry to their advantage, in opposition to public interest.

In that spirit, the third annual Relay for Clean Air will begin at 7pm, Friday night, August 18 at Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Once again we are billing this spectacle as a 24-hour, one hundred mile civil rights march through the most visited national park in the nation, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to downtown Asheville. We are beginning to gather participants and volunteers for this event, now.  Circumstances have not come together this year for the AirAid concert to follow the Relay, as it did last year.  But, this will provide the opportunity to focus more time and organizational effort into the Relay itself.  Hopefully this event will continue to grow in size and participation as it did last year over the previous year, getting national media coverage and making a powerful statement of determination that we all have the right to breathe clean air.

The year 2006 will be a landmark year for the Canary Coalition.  We have forged new friendships and partnerships, expanded our membership and geographical influence.  Our purpose is gaining more focus and visibly resonating with a greater portion of the public.  Our movement is stronger now than ever before and gaining strength.  Just as great social movements of the past have succeeded against powerful industrial and economic interests, we too will succeed, if our message remains clear, if we display our determination, and if we continue to stand up, uncompromisingly for the sake of future generations.

Thank you.