Finding The Good News

So Often, Mainstream Media Focuses On What Is Going Wrong, But Here Are Some Small Things Going Right

(CBS)  If it feels like good news is hard to come by these days, that's because it is. It's not on the front pages and it's not on TV. In a quest for something positive, Sunday Morning correspondent Tracy Smith went to the Library of Congress, which has the largest collection of small-town newspapers.

The first story she found comes from an unlikely source: Dominion Power Company's Chesterfield coal-burning power plant in Chester, Va.

Tom Farrell was running the plant in 1998 when he decided to get some fresh air.

"I knew more in my brain it was the right thing to do," he said. "It was inevitable that we were gonna clean these plants up."

The E.P.A. had warned that coal-fired power companies had to decrease the amount of pollutants released into the air or face penalties. Other companies fought it, but not Dominion; the company voluntarily made changes before the E.P.A. made it. Farrell said the company's lawyers wanted to fight the regulations, but he convinced them that complying might be a better idea.

"We all live here," he said. "We all have families. We all have kids. It was the right thing to do for our state and our neighbors."

Dominion started installing pollution-control equipment throughout its system. Its Chesterfield plant is still being updated but air quality improvements are already measurable.

"We're not done yet," Farrell said. "It'll be a lot better. It'll be down overall, 90 percent reduction all the way across our system and that'll be by the end of this decade."

Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality says the air quality in Richmond has improved by 40 percent, in large part because of Dominion's changes. And the city is poised to be taken off the E.P.A.'s list of areas with the highest smog levels.

"These things work," Farrell said. "I mean, if you put in pollution control equipment, you can remove the nitrogen oxides, you can remove the sulfur dioxides, and you can remove the mercury. They're expensive but they work."

Total cost for the project was $1.6 billion, but Farrell says Dominion's stockholders are breathing easier. Cleaning up is actually costing less than fighting the E.P.A. Customers are paying the same they were paying in 1998, Farrell said.

"Well, nice companies finish first," Farrell said. "There's more coal in the United States than Saudi Arabia has oil. The majority of electricity comes out of coal today and it's gonna be that way for a long time. We can clean it up. We can make it better."

[stop20]

Thank you! Finally someone has figured out that there is not enough GOOD NEWS reported. Now, any way you can start a trend in reporting GOOD NEWS? Great stories!

[rensinger-2009]

Bravo. Great segment! Truly inspirational. Please keep this segment coming...

[sunnyd92]

If we want to help turn our country in a new direction, we must report more than just a litany of horrific events happening. I work with teens in a leadership/success program I created for high schools. Many have a hard time believing in a bright future because they are exposed to an overabundance of negative news on TV, in movies and online. I tell them there are more wonderful things happening in the world than negative ones but they can't find proof of this in a media-driven world that says otherwise.
Please make this a prominent feature of your Sunday morning show and all your other broadcasts. We owe it to ourselves and our children. Thanks so much!

[fincherjf]

Wow....What a great program.


If only the terrorist could realise how we see ourselves as blessed, they might be able to see past our governments sometimes fairly earned preception of arrogance and understand the true ambitions of our good people. We are a people of givers and doers and enjoy the benefits of freedom. I enjoyed your three stories of the postive in all corners of our country.

Our cup is way more than half full....Please share more Positive pieces.

Thank You!

John

[jes5144]

Good news is great. You don't find in newspaper or on TV news because they feel the general public would rather see negative stuff. I think you should go to Irag and report on all the good things we have done over there. Then you can say you found some good news. Thanks.
USAF MSgt Retired.

[cin2it]

While the segment on Stanton School in Philadelphia was nothing short of inspirational and the piece on the Romeo club was so heartwarming, the segment on the coal-fired energy plant in Virginia has restored my faith in humanity.

The world needs more people like Tom Farrell who rose above legal advice that could have indefinitely postponed costly compliance with federal guidelines and simply did what is right by acting for the public good rather than the self-interest of short term political or fiscal expediency. Mr. Farrell's committment to protect the public from the serious, if seldom acknowledged, invisible threat to public health from coal-fired energy plants is nothing short of heroic.

I would like to see a lot more Good News if this week's segments set the template for future stories!

Now if we could only figure out how to make a coal powered automobile

[pterhorst]

Oh my God, Tracey Smith, how you made my heart race with your story about the widowers in Long Island, NY! I just have ONE message for you to pass on to them: I have been a widow for 2 yrs. now and wish I had someone in my life SO if any of them are traveling through the Raleigh North Carolina I live about 12 miles outside of Raleigh. give me a call and we can go to dinner. I am 63 and fairly attractive (my friends tell me) and would like to have some companionship. Not looking for a husband but a companion and then let life take its course.
Here is my email address:
[e-mail]

Phyllis

[cmsimon]

Just thought you might want to know that in most places "ROMEO" stands for RETIRED OLD MEN EATING OUT - thanks for the good news.

[hamlet236]

I also applaud Tom Farrell's decision to do his part to clean up the air in Chester, VA, before he was required to. According to a report by Cambridge, Mass.-based Abt Associates Inc., commissioned by environmental advocacy groups, power plant emission shorten nearly 24,000 lives a year. The report states that Tennessee ranks third in the country in per-capita deaths linked to coal-fired power plant pollution. Only West Virginia and Kentucky have higher per-capita mortality rates from power plant pollution. To get a report on the quality of air in your location and discover who is polluting, check out www.scorecard.org. Simply type in your zipcode.

[mattwalker5]

I'm sad to see a polluter like Dominion Power held up as a leader in environmental progress...

Quoting the segment, %u201CE.P.A. had warned that coal-fired power companies had to decrease the amount of pollutants released into the air or face penalties. Other companies fought it, but not Dominion; the company voluntarily made changes before the E.P.A. made it.%u201D

The segment neglects to mention that Dominion has fought against Clean Air requirements at their Possum Point station (approx. 30 miles outside of DC) and were finally forced by court order to upgrade from coal to natural gas in 2003-4.

Since passage of the Clean Air Act, Dominion has had almost 20 years to begin some process of cleaning the dirtiest of their %u201Cgrandfathered%u201D plants (power plants originally exempted from Clean Air requirements) or to phase them out of operation permanently.

That they have only now begun upgrading, and only in one of their seven major power plants in the area, may pass for good news today given the state of the nation and the world, but you do a disservice to your viewers when %u201Cgood news%u201D segments act less to provide thorough information and act more as corporate spin to improve the image of an archaic industry stuck in the past.
Please do not praise these companies for taking baby steps to finally address their legal responsibilities - responsibilities which they have fought tooth-and-nail against for decades. Thanks for your time!

[rlevine45]

Thank you for the Good News! I hope that you make it a weekly segment.
I taught at Stanton School 37 yrs. ago and last year I watched the movie I Am A Promise. I cried to know that in all these years, things hadn't changed all that much until your segment today. What a joy to see the improvements in educational standards, test scores and children who are excited to learn. Maybe all schools in poorer neighborhoods can learn a lesson from Principal Barbara Adderly! What ever the formula, she is giving the children a chance to develop all that they have been given and now they are the promise!

[luvcortez]

God Is Good!!! I would like to commend the Stanton Elementary Faculty & Staff for the job they are doing. I really believe in my heart, that every child can learn with exception and you are proving just that daily!
Cortez Simpson

[gramde]

What a wonderful way to end the Thanksgiving week!Encore, Encore, Encore, just keep the Good News comming. Please consider making this a weekly segment of the program I've enjoyed for over 25 years. Everyone who knows me knows not to call or visit until after 10:30 am on Sundays. This is MY Special Time. CBS Sunday Morning and Me. Quality time to learn and understand the world around me as it is today. Thank You

[katec8]

Bravo for the good news, and please, please, please consider making it a permanent feature. If weekly isn't feasible, how about monthly? What a day-brightener! Sunday Morning is the only show I go out of my way to watch every week, and I can usually manage it from beginning to end - no small task with a toddler in the house! Keep up the excellent work.

[unystrom]

Good news are so much needed, I wish CBS would consider 1 hour weekly special for good news only, is it too much to ask after all the hours of bad news we get!? I have no doubt that it would be popular and that there are lots of advertisers willing to participate...

[unystrom]

Good news are so much needed, I wish CBS would consider 1 hour weekly special for good news only, is it too much to ask after all the hours of bad news we get!? I have no doubt that it would be popular and that there are lots of advertisers willing to participate...