Members of Beyond Coal tried to obtain 250 signatures on a petition to support the new regulations.
Milbourn said that although the EPA’s data doesn’t show Montgomery County in violation of current smog standards, Roanoke County is currently in violation. Other violating Virginia counties include Arlington, Caroline, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Fauquier, Henrico, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford.
The EPA has also compiled a list of counties that they expect will be in violation with ozone levels over 60 parts per billion in 2020. These predictions are based on the probability of the legislation being enacted.
“It’s based on modeling which would include estimates of what would happen,” she said. “It’s really just an estimate.”
Some Virginia counties estimated to remain in violation are Arlington, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun, Prince William, Roanoke and Stafford.
Dodson said even though Montgomery County is not currently in violation of smog standards, other areas of the state and country can still affect it.
“Air flows between regions,” she said. “Air from the Ohio industrial belt can travel to our area.”
Dodson said she hoped students attending Tuesday’s rally would become more educated about the dangers that air pollution can pose, especially health dangers like asthma, allergies, and heart attacks.
Sophomore Matthew Monteverde also spoke at the rally. Monteverde, who grew up in Indonesia, has suffered from asthma his entire life.
“We are lucky in the United States to have cleaner and more regulated air standards,” he said.
Monteverde said he became involved with Beyond Coal because he supports a switch to clean energy.
Grant said the goal of the event was to enhance awareness of the problem of ozone pollution and to encourage public support of the legislation.
“Public health is an important issue everywhere,” she said.
If accepted, the plan would become effective by August 2011. All states would then be required to submit outlines of their plans to reduce pollution to meet the new standards by December 2013.
Marr said she thinks the legislation will “probably” pass.
“There’s strong scientific evidence for it,” she said.
Carter said Beyond Coal would continue to campaign for clean energy sources on campus and nationwide and their ultimate goal of eliminating the coal plant on campus by 2020.
“It’s not going to be a flick of a switch,” he said, to switch to clean energy.
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A version of this article appeared in the Mar 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 11 Comments Write a letter to the editor
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I love how the "leaders" are these brilliant 20 year olds who know everything, have sooo much experience dealing with bills etc. in the real world and probably voted for B. Hussein Obama because it was the "cool" thing to do.
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That President B.Hussein Obama to you.
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i would rather have the coal plant than the hundreds of windmills that it would take to replace it. their own expert basically said that it is a problem, but not here in blacksburg.
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I think Im probably the person on campus who knows the most about it, Marr said.
Theres a lot of smart people in the Mining Engineering department who may know something about coal. I'd like to hear their expertise in addition to this other associate professor.
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The Mining Engineering department has been awfully quiet about coal on campus, even though articles about it are printed on a weekly basis in the CT. You'd think if they disagreed someone would have spoken up by now.
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Maybe the Mining Department is being quite because there is no reason to bother with something pointless. No one is going to argue against the someone who claims that the sky is green.
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So saying coal is bad for the environment and we shouldn't burn it on campus is like saying the sky is green?
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Yes that's an extremely foolish and ignorant statement. Coal burning is good and a necessary part of our future energy use. Peak oil is going to happen sooner rather than later. You'll be thankful we have coal then.
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How is it ignorant to say that coal companies should be responsible for polluting? And how is it anti-coal to say that a company should be responsible for an effect of production that is detrimental to all of society? They don't oppose coal simply because they hate the industry. They oppose coal because they think that the costs of coal consumption: air pollution from burning and MTR, CO2 emissions, decline in production, etc. are greater than the benefits.
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"They know we're serious."
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