Mark Rogers: Long way on coal ash

In response to the March 15 letter “An election-year ruse”: It should be noted that the only people accusing this administration of playing politics are the folks looking to unseat the current officials.

The writer is right that the violations issued for seeps won’t clean up coal ash, but he’s playing a political shell game.

What will clean up coal ash is the fact that North Carolina is the only state in the United States that has mandated by law that every coal ash pond be closed permanently.

Ignoring what has been done in our state to directly attack this great threat of coal ash is a disservice to all of us. Add to this overlooking the progress that has been made after five decades of previous leaders blatantly ignoring the problem is disingenuous at best, purposely dishonest at worst.

Congratulating elected officials for doing the right thing doesn’t happen much and isn’t popular, but let’s at least acknowledge how far we’ve come on this issue of coal ash before the political rhetoric starts.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Mark Rogers: Long way on coal ash."