Green Wombat

The non-profit Environmental Integrity Project has released a list of the most planet-warming power plants in the nation. The watchdog group, headed by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement official Eric Schaeffer, analyzed EPA records to rank the 50 power plants that emit the most pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity generated.
The plants contributing the most to global warming in terms of total tons of C02 emitted – electric utilities account for 40 percent of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions – are concentrated in a dozen states: Texas,  Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Wyoming, Florida, Kentucky, and New Mexico. The nation’s dirtiest plant in total C02 emissions is Southern’s (SO) Scherer facility in Georgia, according to the report.  Texas is home to the most dirty power plants – five – including two owned by TXU (TXU). The study reports that CO2 emissions have held steady over the past five years but notes that "a wave of new coal-fired power plants are being permitted and built across the country" that will result in an estimated 34 percent spike in greenhouse gas emissions between 2005 and 2030. "If any new coal plants are built, they must be required to dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from current levels," the report’s authors state. The study also tracks the most polluting plants in terms of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions.