Jordan Schneider
Policy Analyst
From Hurricane Sandy to devastating droughts and deadly heat waves, extreme weather events caused by global warming threaten our safety, our health and our environment—and scientists predict things will only get worse unless we cut the dangerous carbon pollution that is fueling the problem. This report highlights the massive and disproportionate contribution to global warming made by U.S. power plants in general and the nation’s dirtiest power plants in particular, and argues for placing strong pollution standards on power plants to make the emissions reductions needed to forstall the worst impacts of global warming.
Global warming is one of the most profound threats of our time, and we’re already starting to feel the impacts – especially when it comes to extreme weather. From Hurricane Sandy to devastating droughts and deadly heat waves, extreme weather events threaten our safety, our health and our environment, and scientists predict things will only get worse for future generations unless we cut the dangerous global warming pollution that is fueling the problem. Power plants are the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States, responsible for 41 percent of the nation’s production of carbon dioxide pollution, the leading greenhouse gas driving global warming.
America’s power plants are among the most significant sources of carbon dioxide pollution in the world. The 50 most-polluting U.S. power plants emit more than 2 percent of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide pollution – or more pollution than every nation except six worldwide.
Despite their enormous contribution to global warming, U.S. power plants do not face any federal limits on carbon dioxide pollution. To protect our health, our safety and our environment from the worst impacts of global warming, the United States should clean up the dirtiest power plants.
A small handful of the dirtiest power plants produce a massive and disproportionate share of the nation’s global warming pollution.
Figure ES-1. The 50 Dirtiest Power Plants Contribute Significantly to U.S. Carbon Dioxide Pollution (Million Metric Tons – MMT), 2011
The dirtiest U.S. power plants are major sources of global warming pollution on a global scale.
Figure ES-2. Carbon Dioxide Pollution Emitted by the 50 Dirtiest Power Plants Compared to Other Countries (MMT CO2)
To protect our health, our safety, and our environment from the dangers of global warming, America must clean up polluting power plants.
o New plants – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should work to meet its September 2013 deadline for re-proposing a stringent emissions standard for new power plants. It should also set a deadline for finalizing these standards no later than June 2015.
o Existing plants – The EPA should work to meet the timeline put forth by President Obama for proposing and finalizing emissions standards for existing power plants. This timeline calls for limits on existing plants to be proposed by June 2014 and finalized by June 2015. The standards should be based on the most recent climate science and designed to achieve the emissions reduction targets that are necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
In addition to cutting pollution from power plants, the United States should adopt a suite of clean energy policies at the local, state, and federal levels to curb emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use in other sectors.
Other policies to curb emissions include:
Policy Analyst
Policy Analyst