Dear Governor Easley, Senator Basnight and Representative Black:
I am writing to ask you to set North Carolina on a path to reduce our state's emissions of carbon dioxide and other gasses that contribute to global warming. Recent studies have confirmed that burning fossil fuel, which releases carbon dioxide, causes global warming. The United States is the number one producer of carbon dioxide in the world. In North Carolina, emissions of carbon dioxide have risen 30% since 1990 with over half of these emissions coming from our utilities and transportation sectors.
Global warming presents a real threat to North Carolina, in the form of increased flooding, stronger hurricanes, inundation of our barrier islands as the sea level rises, and greater difficulty meeting federal ozone and particulate air quality standards in our cities as temperatures increase. We have already seen the erosion of our beaches, unprecedented flooding in our mountains, and a severe drought that brought many of our local communities within hours of running out of water. While experts cannot say these events were the result of global warming, they have stated that as the temperature of the Earth continues to rise, we should expect more extreme weather.
Ultimately, addressing global warming will require national and international action -- but there are free or inexpensive steps that North Carolina can take now to begin to address the threat: namely promoting non-fossil fuel sources of energy; supporting energy efficiency in industry and government; and planning ahead to position North Carolina to cut our carbon dioxide emissions without damaging our economy. I urge you to pursue these opportunities with vision and commitment in 2005.
Thank you for making a commitment to this issue.