If we want to breathe clean air again in Charlotte, it’s going to take strong action by city and county government. As we noted last week, the new federal energy bill, aka the Pork for Polluters Act, does next to nothing to clean the air, develop renewable energy or tighten energy efficiency. Some cities and states have grown tired of waiting for the feds to step up and are acting on their own. That should happen here, too. With Congress falling down on the job, and with Charlotte’s air quality among the worst in the country, it’s time for City Council and the County Commission to get more aggressive.
It’s not that there hasn’t been progress made here in the past few years, it’s just that pollution and growth are threatening to overrun our current efforts. We now have 15 miles of HOV lanes on I-77, which encourage car pooling; bike lanes have been created; and the city and county both are increasing the number of “clean” vehicles they use — either hybrids or retrofitted diesels. All county buildings now must meet energy efficient, “green” building standards, starting with the soon-to-open ImaginOn Children’s Learning Center.
Smaller efforts include a program to advise small businesses on air quality issues, a few nifty pages on the Mecklenburg County website offering suggestions for reducing air pollution and a program to arrange car pools for county employees.
One major problem persists. The primary tool in local leaders’ air quality arsenal, “Cutting Pollution When It Counts,” is essentially a bust. This is a voluntary program the Chamber developed for businesses to reduce ozone emissions on bad air days. So far, the Chamber has about 50 local takers, although only 10 of those businesses have come up with formal plans. But as Steve Weber, chair of the Mecklenburg County Air Quality Commission, explained recently in the Observer, it would take 2000 companies participating fully in the program to make a real difference. Originally, county staff had proposed a mandatory plan in which any business with 20 or more workers would need to work to reduce emissions caused by their employees commuting on bad air days. But businesses balked at new regulations and the Chamber came up with the toothless, um, voluntary plan. This being Charlotte, the Chamber got what it wanted.
The sad but simple fact is that most businesses aren’t going to take action to improve air quality without the threat of sanctions. Another sad but simple fact is that local leaders are, so far, cowed by the prospect of tangling with the business community. If Charlotte is to ever escape summer smog, however, local pols will need to stiffen their spines.
Granted, the city and county measures outlined above are a start, but in view of the fact that people with breathing problems in Charlotte can’t leave the house about 20 days each summer because of unhealthy air, we should be way past the starting stage by now.
Local government could do worse than emulate some other American cities. In Chicago, for instance, the city built a bicycle station with showers; city buildings there will soon be equipped with solar-thermal collectors; and big-box stores are required to install “green roofs” covered by low-growing plants that help lower the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling.
In Seattle, the city compiled a greenhouse gas emissions inventory to identify how municipal operations contributed to global warming. Three years later, the city has reduced those emissions by more than 60 percent from 1990 levels, and is on track to reduce net emissions to zero by the end of this year.
Those programs could just as easily work here, if local government will just make the moves. Here are some other measures that could help:
• Place stricter limits on the amount of tree cover developers can destroy when putting in new housing.
• Hold contractors to tighter emissions standards during construction projects.
• Retrofit city and county buildings to better meet “green” building standards for energy efficiency.
• Require new office buildings to meet “green” building standards.
• Provide the Mecklenburg Air Quality Commission with a sizeable advertising budget to better raise public awareness of solutions to air quality problems. As County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts emphasizes, “Public awareness is really the most important thing.”
Roberts also favors changes in countywide planning to quicken the rate of dense development along transit corridors and promote walkable neighborhoods. And, although she’s not in city government, Roberts thinks it’s “surprising” that Mayor McCrory hasn’t signed on to the Climate Protection Agreement. The CPA is a statement, signed individually by more than 170 US mayors, that outlines goals for meeting Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing greenhouse gases by tweaking government operations. The CPA was endorsed unanimously by the US Conference of Mayors. McCrory even helped bang out the final compromise on language in the agreement, but he has yet to sign on to it himself. Urging him to sign on is one constructive thing voters can do.
It’s good that city and county leaders have made some progress in improving air quality. What we need now is even more action. We’re up to our necks in environmental problems that can be solved only by leaders who will buck some of their business support in favor of doing the right thing for the whole community.
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2005.
