The United States is one of the top greenhouse gas polluters globally, only having moved out of first place in recent years due to China’s growing economy. In 2008, the U.S. government began requiring industries in the country to report their specific greenhouse gas emissions, emissions that were previously estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The result of the requirement is a report by the EPA on emissions in 2010 and a clearer vision of what changes need to be made.
The data collected by the EPA was catalogued in the new report which details emissions of more than 6,700 facilities. The power plants and refineries in the study were found to combine for nearly eighty percent of the U.S. total for greenhouse gas emissions for the year of 2010. Power plants were found to be responsible for seventy-two percent of greenhouse gases, while refineries were 5.7 percent.
The EPA made the listings for the facilities available, which pleased environmental groups working against power plant pollution. The U.S. is currently in the midst of implementing new regulations for power plants, especially the heaviest polluters, which will require new pollution controls at the facilities. An attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, Paul Zalzal, praised the EPA: “EPA has scored a touchdown for the public’s right to know about the nation’s largest industrial climate pollution sources.”
The power plant with the greatest level of greenhouse gas emissions was the Scherer power plant located in Juliette, Georgia. The plant was responsible for emitting approximately 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2010. The second largest emitter is the Bowen plant in Cartersville, Georgia, while the third is the James H. Miller Jr. plant located in Quinton, Alabama. These three plants are all massive coal-fire plants and are owned by Southern Company.
Coal-fired plants owned by the American Electric Power company also had three power plants in the greatest twenty emitters. Their particular power plants are located in Rockport, Indiana, Cheshire, Ohio and St. Albans, West Virginia. Aside from those previously mentioned, the greatest polluting power plants were located in Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Missouri, Wyoming, North Carolina, Kentucky, Montana and Kansas.
