Article published Nov 2, 2007

Single-issue election

China uses huge amounts of coal. The air in Beijing is so thick with coal smoke and dust that breathing it is equal to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. The sky is not blue; it is yellow-brown.

One night, when I was in Beijing, there was a big thunderstorm with a lot of rain. I was looking forward to waking up the next morning to a clear blue sky, like we do here in Great Falls after a rainstorm. The air was as murky the day after the big rainfall as it had been the day before. Not only that, when it rains in China, the air is so polluted that it actually rains mud.

Air as dirty as that in Beijing, and its associated health problems, are what we in Great Falls and the surrounding area can look forward to if the Highwood Generating Station is built.

We have an opportunity to stop this dirty coal-fired plant in its tracks.

Please vote for Ed McKnight, Mary Jolley and Suart Lewin on Tuesday. If ever there was a time for a single-issue election, this is it. After all, what is more important than your health?

— Barbara Teberg, Great Falls