According to today?s Charlotte Observer, the Mecklenburg County Commissioners are considering a new set of oppressive rules to curb ground level ozone formation on potentially high ozone days. These include restrictions on commuting to work, using the drive-through at fast food restaurants, and on the use of lawn mowers and construction equipment.
This is eco-fascism for its own sake. The ozone data coming out of Mecklenburg County cannot possibly justify these restrictions on individual liberty.
In 2003 Mecklenburg County, along with the rest of North Carolina, had the fewest number of high ozone days in over ten years. In addition, 2003 continued a five-year downward trend that began in 1998, interrupted only in the abnormally warm year of 2002.
From 1998 to 2003 the average number of high ozone days per ozone monitor in the state fell from 14.5 days to 2.4 days a year. In Charlotte the number of high ozone days went from a high of 25.4 days per ozone monitor in 1998 to 4 in 2003.
If Charlotte is truly concerned about lowering ozone in the future probably the best thing it can do is abandon their light rail project and build more roads. Automobiles pollute the most when they are stuck in traffic congestion. It is becoming increasingly clear that the cities that put the most money into light rail and the least into roads tend to have the worst traffic congestion. This is why cities like Las Vegas, Houston, and Orlando, that have forgone light rail and put their resources into new and improved roads, have the fewest traffic congestion problems in the country, while cities like Portland and L.A. consistently have the worst.
