15. Oppose UNC Chapel Hill’s Title 5 Air Permit to Burn Dirty Coal!

Elizabeth O’Nan is Chair of Chapel Hill Organization for Clean Energy or CHOCE for short. Despite past promises by UNC to cut coal by 2020, the administration reneged on that promise a few years later and they are still burning dirty coal. UNC Chapel Hill is the only institute of higher learning in North Carolina still operating a coal-burning plant. Now, North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality or DAQ for short has just issued a draft of its Title 5 Air Permit for the UNC coal plant which would allow them to burn MORE coal and emit MORE air pollution. Every major polluting facility in the country must have an air permit to operate. Permits are required by Title V of the Clean Air Act. The permit sets legal allowable limits for how much air pollution a facility can emit. Specifically, the permit regulates sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter/soot, and hazardous air pollutants emitted from the UNC coal plant. Some of the major impacts of this draft permit is that it will significantly increase pollution and worsen the health impacts on the community. DAQ has removed the heat input limit from the draft permit. Without a heat input limit, there is no way to enforce the limit on the amount of pollutants that can be released from the coal plant’s smokestack and allows the coal plant to pollute as much as it wants. This permit will lead to increased asthma attacks, respiratory illness, heart attacks, and premature death for the surrounding communities. With Elizabeth we discuss this Title 5 permit and what it could mean, health and environmental impacts, and tune in for the last bit to learn how you can take action to oppose this permit! Contact and connect with Elizabeth: [email protected] CHOCE FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CHOCE Air Permit information: https://deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2021/03/31/release-public-hearing-draft-unc-title-v-permit-be-held-may-4 https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/north-carolina-air-regulators-propose-to-eliminate-restrictions-on-harmful-coal-emissions-from-unc-chapel-hill-power-plant-2021-04-26/ https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/04/university-coal-plant-concerns-permit-lawsuit Comments can be submitted by email to [email protected] with the subject line ["UNC.15B"] You may also leave a voicemail comment at (919) 707-8726. Comments will be accepted until May 6, 2021 at 5 p.m. A public hearing will be held (by telephone) May 4th at 6pm Eastern Standard Time. If you wish to speak at the public hearing, you must register by May 4 at 4 p.m. To register, please visit: https://bit.ly/3clFndZ or call (919) 618-0968.