Tunnel Vision: The Case Against Smog

By Brendan O'Hallarn Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A little over a year ago, I took the bus to work for a story for WYDaily.

The story achieved a tiny bit of notoriety among Virginia’s environmental community, and I ended up on a couple of organizations’ mailing lists.
Whenever I receive an email about an event promoting an environmental cause, I cringe just a little bit at the rolling greenhouse gas monster that I drive to work at Old Dominion University four days a week.

The thing I notice in just about every press release is that despite discussing very different issues, you can find an awful lot to learn about our own commuting behavior in them.

On Tuesday, a group of Virginians urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to move to strengthen standards on smog held a press conference in Norfolk.

It was a diverse coalition, including representatives of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Consortium for Infant and Child Health, and the Sierra Club of Virginia.

The argument being fronted was decidedly counterintuitive. The participants stated flat-out that with tougher standards for smog, Hampton Roads will be designated in violation of these air pollution standards, which could hamper the region’s economic development. However, the payoff in terms of better air for all of us to breathe is immeasurable, the proponents said, reducing the number of asthma attacks and other health problems triggered by smog.

The panelists warned, as well, that the proposed coal plant in nearby Surry County will do more harm to the region than good. If the additional emissions from the plant put Hampton Roads in violation of the new EPA smog standards, the region faces enforced limits on its development plan, further curbing economic growth.

A couple of times a day, you see the coal trains making their way down the Peninsula to the Port of Virginia in Newport News. We get it. As much as it seems like a fuel source from the early industrial revolution coal isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

However, Glen Besa, Virginia Director of the Sierra Club, said individual and government behavior in other areas can help blunt the increase in emissions from this region, coal plant or not. That’s by encouraging smarter use of the little four-wheeled “power plants” we take to work every day.

“It is critical for Hampton Roads communities to recognize that if more pollution is permitted from large stationary sources, such as the ODEC coal plant, then reductions in pollution will have to be found elsewhere,” Besa said.

If the standards are put in place, Besa said the Coal Plant will “almost certainly mean increased mandates for inspection and maintenance of private automobiles. There could be requirement to encourage expanded use of HOV lanes. Additionally, if Hampton Roads cannot demonstrate attainment in their State Implementation Plan (SIP) they could jeopardize federal highway funding in the future.”

However, Besa told me that highway construction, particularly if it’s a new crossing of the James River into south Hampton Roads, might end up helping the region meet its emission targets in the long run.

“If they build that third crossing, they need to build a rail link along with it,” Besa said. “They’ve already got the (ability) to bring high-speed rail into Newport News. Wouldn’t it be great if it went right into Norfolk?”

As long as, for the foreseeable future, those passenger trains stay out of the way of the coal cars.

Brendan O’Hallarn writes Tunnel Vision for WYDaily. Do you have an idea that you’d like him to write about? Contact Brendan at brendan@wydaily.com.