A bit of suggestive imagery in this N&O editorial on Attorney General Roy Cooper’s lawsuit against the TVA:

It is unfortunate the TVA has taken such a hard-nosed attitude. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that the utility’s plants contribute significantly to air pollution in North Carolina. The prevailing winds and weather patterns tend to bring the bad air from the entire Midwest, including the TVA’s areas of operation.

The result of such ill winds are felt most strongly in the mountain regions of this state. Dr. Clay Ballentine, an Asheville physician who treats hospital patients for asthma, heart attacks, strokes and other diseases said in an interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, “We know from studies in North Carolina that air pollution causes about one-third to one-half of the asthma attacks in any given year.”

Dr. Ballentine would have had enough credibility on the issue (as the N&O sees it, at least) just as a physician. But the N&O just had to throw in that he treats heart attacks, strokes, and “other diseases,” as most doctors do. The implication, of course, is that air pollution causes those diseases. The message, of course, is be afraid. Very afraid.