Penn. is worst polluter in North America (filthy power plants)

[donsu]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05012/440799.stm

Pennsylvania's a leader in pollution

Power plants among dirtiest on continent


Coal-burning power plants in Pennsylvania are among the biggest emitters of sulfur dioxide and mercury pollution in North America, according to a report released yesterday by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

The report is the first comparison of emissions from more than 1,000 fossil fuel power plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It found that a small percentage of the plants release much of the pollution and that there are dirty power plants in each nation.

Allegheny Energy's Hatfield's Ferry power plant in Masontown, Greene County, and Reliant Energies Inc.'s Keystone power plant in Shelocta, Armstrong County, are the second- and third-biggest emitters of sulfur dioxide in the United States.

-snip-

Pennsylvania's power plants don't make the top 20 for emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which have been controlled for years under a regional air pollution control strategy established by the Ozone Transport Region. Pennsylvania is in the region; Ohio and states to the west are not and power plants there occupy nine of the top 10 spots for nitrogen oxide emissions.

"The numbers look very hazy for the United States," said Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, an environmental organization. "Our emissions are very high and underscore that relatively few power plants are using modern pollution control equipment 35 years after the passage of the Clean Air Act."
-snip-
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wonder what the asthma count in Penn. and downwind are.

bad air is hard on the heart.

do the people of Penn. care that they are ruining the world's air?

maybe they are like Texans who like living in a toxic dump.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. No wonder I get colds all the time n/t

[ender]

2. coal is cheap.

thats why.

and we, in PA, have a ton of it.

[donsu]

3. but, why haven't you all made the power plants use the equipement...

that would reduce the pollution?

[ender]

4. because we're running old plants

many of these plants were built before 1940, and retrofitting them would be enormously expensive.

as would building new plants.

[donsu]

5. that's a crazy reason not to have clean air

nt