EPA: Those Power Plants Sure Are a Big Problem

Katie Pavlich | January 12, 2012 7:39 AM

The EPA has found the global warming culprit everyone....powerplants.

The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming.

Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions.

According to an Associated Press analysis of the data, 20 mostly coal-fired power plants in 15 states account for the top-releasing facilities.

Gina McCarthy, the top air official at the EPA, said the database marked "a major milestone" in the agency's work to address climate change. She said it would help industry, states and the federal government identify ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

The Obama administration plans to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases under existing law. A proposed regulation to address pollution from new power plants could be released as early as this month. Eventually, the EPA will have to tackle facilities already in operation. The largest emitters will be the first in line.

The largest greenhouse gas polluter in the nation in 2010, according to the EPA's data, was the Scherer power plant in Juliette, Ga., owned by Southern Company. That coal-fired power plant reported releasing nearly 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, in 2010.

Coal provides roughly 54 percent of the electricity in the United States'. It is a safe and affordable way to keep the lights of Americans on. But regardless of these facts, get ready for the war on coal to get ramped up after these studies show coal as a the culprit for "climate change," a theory that has been heavily questioned to be a complete fraud.

Need an antidote to the EPA madness? Watch Not Evil Just Wrong.