Report Puts Spotlight on Fifty Dirtiest Power Plants in U.S.

[depakid]

A recent report by a non-partisan environmental law-enforcement group ranked the seriousness of American power plant emissions and disclosed a list of the fifty filthiest.

"Nationwide, power plants account for roughly two-thirds of all sulfur dioxide (SO2), 22% of nitrogen oxides (Knox), 40% of carbon dioxide (CO2) and roughly one-third of all mercury emissions," said the report released late last month by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

The nation's nearly 400 major power plants can be assessed on each of the four pollutants by using a ranking system for the worst polluters. The 2006 report is the first time the EIP has used a composite score by combining the emissions "rate" rankings of the four pollutants.

<snip>

A mere 4% of the nearly 1,200 fossil fuel burning power plants in the country are responsible for 45% of all sulfur dioxide emissions.

More: http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-4/44418.html

(Epoch Times is an outstanding little paper, btw).

Here's EIP's press release with the key findings: http://www.dirtykilowatts.org/release.cfm

Here is the report: http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/pubs/EIP%2050%20dirtiest%20news%20release%20FINAL.pdf

Here's a searchable database: http://www.dirtykilowatts.org/

[tocqueville]

1. here are the top ten

EIP ranked each of the just under 400 power plants for which the most recent emissions and electrical generation data are publicly available, based on emission rates, or pounds of pollutant for each megawatt-hour (or million megawatt-hours, in the case of mercury) that the plant produced. Based on a combined ranking across all four pollutant categories (SO2, NOx, CO2 and mercury), the three worst-scoring plants in the U.S. were in North Dakota, with the very worst - Basin Electric's Leland Olds plant – coming in first based on a ranking of 35th for sulfur dioxide, 19th for carbon dioxide, 24th for nitrogen oxides, and 37th for mercury emission rates.

The balance of the top 10 dirtiest power plants based on the combined score consisted of: #2 Minnkota's Milton Young in North Dakota; #3 Otter Tail's Coyote in North Dakota; #4 South Mississippi Electric Power Association's R. D. Morrow plant; #5 Reliant's Shawville in Pennsylvana; #6 Southern Company's E. C. Gaston in Alabama; #7 Northern States Power's Riverside plant in Minnesota; #8 Southern Company's Greene County plant in Alabama; #9 Central Louisiana Electric's Dolet Hills plant; and #10 Progress Energy's L.V. Sutton plant in North Carolina. The 12 states that are home to at least two of the 50 dirtiest power plants were: Indiana (5); Alabama (4); Kentucky (4); North Dakota (4); Ohio (3); Pennsylvania (3); Texas (3); Iowa (3); Illinois (2); Nebraska (2); New Jersey (2); and Wyoming (2).

[jpak]

3. The Southern Company has two in the top 10??!!!

The same Southern Co. that was a charter member of the infamous Greenwash "Climate Coalition" that spread lies about the "bad science" behind the "global warming fraud"??

The same Southern Co. whose CEO is a FOTC (Friend of the Chimp) and an enthusiastic participant in Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force????

The same Southern Co. that shoveled millions at ChimpCo and the GOP in the last election cycle????

The same Southern Co. that will gladly take billions your tax dollars to build a new nuclear plant in Georgia???

The same Southern Co. that **you the taxpayer** will PAY $2 billion to generate electricity at that new nuke so they can sell the electricity back to you at the highest price they can get away with???

Say it ain't so...

and will the Southern Co. shut down those nasty ol' coal-fired plants when those nice new taxpayer-subsidized nucular power plants are built????

nope...

WTF????

:banghead:

[tocqueville]

4. nothing surprises me about the Bush administration nt

[damntexdem]

2. Ooh, searched my own state, Texas.

And there were 5 plants listed, four of them TXU. And TXU wants to build more coal-fueled plants in North Texas.