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coal power plants

October 17, 2024

Progress seen on overall industry emissions, even as oil and gas emissions rise, EPA finds

By Shannon Kelleher

US power plants, the largest stationary sources of greenhouse gases in the nation, continue to show reduced emissions but the good news from that sector comes as oil and gas emissions rise, according to new regulatory data.

Power plant emissions totaled about 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, down 7% from 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported. The agency collects data from over 8,000 industrial facilities for its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, accounting for about half of total US emissions.

However, greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum and natural gas plants increased 1.4% in 2023 over 2022, and the 2023 tally was up 16.4% from 2016, the EPA said.

Nine coal-fired power plants were among the top ten greenhouse gas-emitting industrial facilities for 2023, along with a Texas-based ExxonMobil refinery.

The worst emitter – for the ninth year in a row – was the James H Miller power plant outside Birmingham, Alabama.

Altogether, large industrial facilities’ greenhouse gas emissions, the chemicals that are driving human-caused climate change, dropped by 4% last year, the EPA reported.

“The progress is largely driven by the power sector, [which] has seen steadily declining emissions,” Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis at the National Resources Defense Council, said in an email, noting that the change reflects a shift away from coal over time. “The power sector can, and must, continue to decarbonize,” she said.

December 1, 2022

“Flagrant environmental injustice”- groups petition EPA over coal ash pollution

By Grace van Deelen

Seven years after US regulators set what were supposed to be strict rules for the disposal of coal ash—a toxic mix of metals such as arsenic and lead generated by coal-burning power plants—the vast majority of coal power plants are continuing to allow coal ash contamination of groundwater at levels considered unsafe, according to environmental advocacy groups.

Roughly half a billion tons of coal ash at 300 sites across around the United States are exempt from “life-saving health protections,” according to a petition delivered Thursday to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The petition calls on the agency to update regulations to include the complete closure and cleanup of legacy coal ash landfills and to take “aggressive enforcement against violators.” The petition specifically cites coal ash waste impacting communities in Indiana and Illinois. In addition to the organizations that signed on, the petition received nearly 2,000 citizen signatures.

“We want communities to know exactly what’s happening at their power plant. Much of it is very concerning and very damning,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney at Earthjustice, one of the lead groups petitioning the EPA.