Finding The Good News
So Often, Mainstream Media Focuses On What Is Going Wrong, But Here Are Some Small Things Going Right
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Principal Barbara Adderley works with a student at Stanton elementary school in North Philadelphia. (CBS)
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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."
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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!
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
USAF MSgt Retired.
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!
Here is my email address:
bearsandraggedys@yahoo.com
Phyllis
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!
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!
Cortez Simpson
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by unystrom
November 27, 2006 3:29 PM PST
- 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...
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