DAVID KELLY: Clean Smokestacks Act at 20 - NC must lead response to climate change
Friday, May 13, 2022 -- The leadership North Carolina showed in tackling power-sector pollution 20 years ago with the Clean Smokestacks Act helped paved the way for important progress. This important progress served not only the people of our great state, but countless others throughout our country, as other states followed with new policies to reduce harmful pollution. What is the next chapter of our state's great story of progress for people and the environment? This next chapter must feature North Carolina's response to the increasingly acute impacts of climate change.
Posted — UpdatedToday because of that law, the people of our state can breathe easier. The magnificent mountain vistas of western North Carolina, once obscured by smog and foul air, are restored. They stand as a reminder of the decisive and deliberate action North Carolina leaders were willing to take to set our state on a path toward a cleaner, healthier future.
As we approach this important anniversary, it’s clear that the leadership North Carolina showed in tackling power-sector pollution 20 years ago helped paved the way for important progress. This important progress served not only the people of our great state, but countless others throughout our country, as other states followed with new policies to reduce harmful pollution.
What is the next chapter of our state’s great story of progress for people and the environment? This next chapter must feature North Carolina’s response to the increasingly acute impacts of climate change. In the last 20 years, climate change has rapidly advanced, leaving its mark on the state’s people, property and economy in ways that are impossible to ignore.
Fortunately, there are three policy opportunities on the table right now that can help us close the gap between expected emission levels and critical climate pollution milestones:
In the two decades since the passage of the Clean Smokestacks Act, we’ve made great strides. Today, there is reason to be hopeful about our future. But, just as before, North Carolina's leaders must be prepared to take decisive action and move with all deliberate speed in choosing once again to chart a course toward a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous future for our people and our communities.
If North Carolina’s leaders can be bold, this can be the moment our children and grandchildren will look back on 20 years from now to see how we answered the call when it was our turn to choose a better future for our state and its people.
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