Power Plant Emissions Ranked as a Climate Action Tool

Power sector emissions account for 25 percent of the global total of carbon dioxide, 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United States, and are a primary cause of global warming.

But until now people concerned about climate change lacked information about the emissions of particular power plants and the identities of the companies that own them.

The online database was compiled by the Center for Global Development, CGD, an independent policy and research organization that focuses on how the actions of the rich world shape the lives of poor people in developing countries.

The Scherer power plant in Georgia emits the most CO2 of any U.S. power plant. (Photo courtesy Georgia Power)

It shows where the CO2 emitters are and how much of the greenhouse gas they are emitting. It also shows which companies own these power plants. The CARMA data is displayed online at: www.CARMA.org.

A research team led by David Wheeler, a senior fellow at CGD, constructed the enormous database to help speed the shift to less carbon intensive power generation.

"CARMA makes information about power-related CO2 emissions transparent to people throughout the world," says Dr. Wheeler, an expert in the use of public information disclosure to reduce pollution.

"Information leads to action," he says. "We know that this works for other forms of pollution and we believe it can work for greenhouse gas emissions, too."

"We expect that institutional and private investors, insurers, lenders, environmental and consumer groups and individual activists will use the CARMA data to encourage power companies to burn less coal and oil and to shift to renewable power sources, such as wind and solar," Dr. Wheeler says.

Earlier research by Wheeler and his co-authors showed that highly-polluting plants in China and Indonesia responded to pressure from neighboring communities and lenders by reducing pollution after public disclosure of their emissions.

The U.S. Dirty Dozen

Globally, power generation emits nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 per year. The United States, with over 8,000 power plants out of the more than 50,000 worldwide, accounts for about 25 percent of that total or 2.8 billion tons.

CARMA data shows that the biggest CO2 emitter in the United States is Southern Co. with annual emissions of 172 million tons, followed by American Electric Power Company Inc., Duke Energy Corp., and AES Corp.

Annually, the 12 biggest CO2 polluting power plants in the United States are all coal-fired power plants.

According to CARMA data, the Ohio River Valley, the southeastern states, and Texas are the dirtiest regions in terms of CO2 emissions. The least dirty CO2 region is the West Coast, where much of the electric power is generated by nuclear and hydroelectric plants.

The Martin Lake power plant is seventh on the list of top U.S. emitters. (Photo courtesy TXU)

The state with the greatest CO2 emissions from electricity generation is Texas (290 million tons), followed by Florida (157 million tons), Indiana (137 million tons), Pennsylvania (136 million tons), Ohio (133 million tons), Illinois (113 million tons), Kentucky (98 million tons), Georgia (92 million tons), Michigan (91 million tons) and Alabama (91 million tons).

The District of Columbia has the lowest power-related emissions (113,000 tons), followed by Vermont (437,000 tons), Idaho (1 million tons), Rhode Island (2.6 million tons); South Dakota (4.7 million tons); and Alaska (6 million tons).

At the county level, Walker County in Alabama, where power plants produce over 28 million tons of CO2 each year, heads the list of CO2 emitters.

Grundy County in Illinois, with two large nuclear plants, and Taylor County in Texas, which relies almost exclusively on renewable resources, have nearly zero CO2 emissions.

Residents of Austin, Texas, including faculty and students of the University of Texas at Austin, have the highest-emitting power facility of any university town in the country, emitting some 400,000 tons a year, a larger amount than the District of Columbia.

For the United States, CARMA makes emissions data available by Congressional district, county and metro area, making it possible for the first time to compare total power-related emissions by locality.

Rankings of the 4,000 electric power companies in the world show which are the biggest carbon polluters globally and nationally.

Company level data include emissions and power generation for 2000 and 2007, as well as estimates of future emissions and power generation from planned expansions. Data will be updated regularly as facility ownership changes and new plants come online.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.