Overture 04-15. On Opposing the Change in Requirements of Emission from Smoke Stack Industries—From the Presbytery of Savannah.

The White Bluff Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of Savannah overtures the 216th General Assembly (2004) to do the following:

1. Declare our opposition to the change in requirements of emission from smoke stack industries. “The new rules would allow thousands of older power plants, oil refineries, and industrial units to make extensive upgrades without having to install new antipollution devises.”1

2. Petition the president of the United States to draft rules that would further reduce tailpipe emission by increasing the fuel efficiency of new automobiles.

3. Request the Stated Clerk to communicate with the president of the United States and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the appropriate members of Congress. The communication should include the impact that smoke stack and tail pipe emission is having on the health of our most vulnerable population and on our environment, due to acid rain.

Rationale

The most vulnerable population in Canada and the U.S. suffer with severe respiratory health problems. Pollution is a contributing factor in the severity of asthma in the very young and the very old and a cause of premature death.

People that fall in the lower socioeconomic class tend to be most effected because frequently the industries that are heavy polluters are located in their neighborhood.

Our hardwood forests of both the northeast and the Great Smoky Mountains suffer due to the effect of acid rain, which is the result of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission.

Annually “people with asthma experience more than 100 million days of restrictive activity, costs for asthma exceeds $4 billion, and about 4,000 people die of asthma.”2

“The health cost of human exposure to outdoor air pollutants range from $40 to $50 billion.”3

Endnotes

1. New York Times, August 22, 2003, Katherine Q. Seeley.

2. Ibid.

3. Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Environmental Health, Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch.