The Envelope Please: Most-Polluting U.S. Utility Is AEP @ 141.2 Million Tons C In 2012
American Electric Power Company was the largest emitter of carbon pollution from power plants in the U.S. in 2012, according to a report released this morning by Ceres, Bank of America, several utilities and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
AEPs fleet of coal, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants emitted 141,226,882 tons of carbon in 2012, according to the Benchmarking Air Emissions report. The next runner up, Duke Energy , emitted 134,277,330 tons. AEP is the fifth largest producer of electricity, while Duke is the largest.
“The important point in this report is the reduction in emissions, including CO2, from our plants,” said Tammy Ridout, AEP’s manager for media relations and policy communications. “AEP’s CO2 emissions have been cut 21 percent since 2005, and they will continue to go down as we retire another 6,600 megawatts of coal-fueled generation in the next few years.”
“AEP is one of the largest generators of electricity in the United States, and about 60 percent of our generating capacity uses coal, so it is not surprising that we produce the highest CO2 emissions by volume. But, the CO2 emissions rate from our coal plants is ranked much lower in the report – at No. 61 on the list – which means we produce the power we make very efficiently.”
EDIT
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2014/05/28/and-the-biggest-power-polluter-is-aep/