On Asheville City Council’s agenda for next Tuesday is a request to authorize the mayor to sign the following:

ENVIRONMENT AMERICA’S
GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS
CAMPAIGN

  • Global warming is hurting America. According to the National Climate Assessment; extreme drought and wildfires in the West; downpours and megastorms like Superstorm Sandy; and sea level rise and flooding on our coasts will get much worse for our children and future generations unless we rein in the carbon pollution fueling global warming.
  • Global warming hurts public health. Heat is a key component of smog, and global warming is increasing the number of bad air days. On top of that, severe weather threatens public safety, and warming is increasing the spread of certain diseases.
  • Power plants are the single largest source of carbon pollution. Nationally, the 50 dirtiest power plants emit more carbon each year than all but 6 other countries.
  • The Clean Power Plan is America’s biggest step ever on climate. On June 2, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to cut carbon pollution from power plants 30 percent by 2030.
  • For more than 40 years, the Clean Air Act has effectively reduced dangerous pollution. The Supreme Court has ruled that EPA is obligated to protect Americans from carbon pollution the same way it protects us from soot, smog, mercury, and more.
  • Americans support limits on carbon pollution. More than 600 elected officials and 4 million Americans have voiced support for limits on carbon pollution from power plants. A recent Yale poll found that 64 percent of Americans support strict carbon limits on power plants.
  • Clean energy is already reducing carbon pollution across the country. Clean energy policies, such as standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency, are leading to big reductions of carbon pollution. Clean energy policies have reduced U.S. carbon pollution by the equivalent of 34 million passenger vehicles.

An appendage lists North Carolina as already suffering from carbon-induced climate change with “rising sea levels that make damage from storm surges worse.”

I get it. People are destroying the planet. We need to embrace a 35-year lifespan and burn no fuel. If I were Duke Power, I would be tempted to play power worse than Tim Moffitt ever did. I would give the good people of Asheville one or two months to evacuate and then pull the plug on the power plant. Keeping people warm, clean, and dry and fueling industries is obviously not of value to the local psyche. Duke should pull out and go where they’re appreciated. We’ll be blue for a season, but come the spring, we’ll be ever so greeeeeeeeeeeeeen.