A new NRDC report shares a positive picture about “reduced emissions” of major air pollutants like carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by nation’s 100 electric power producers, accounting for 85 percent of US’s power production. These include top names like Duke, Southern, Exelon and many others.
While total electricity production has grown since 2000, emission of all four critical pollutants have dropped. The main factors that are driving this drop are:
- Energy efficiency improvements
- New air pollution standards
- Coal plant retirements
- Power generation from alternate sources (wind, gas and solar)
Report also classifies different states by “amount of pollutant released”. The top 10 states with highest CO2 pollution include:
| 263.3 million tons |
| 119 million tons |
| 114.1 million tons |
| 109.3 million tons |
| 106 million tons |
| 101 million tons |
| 94.1 million tons |
| 82.8 million tons |
| 79.5 million tons |
| 73.4 million tons |
Energy produced from wind, solar and nuclear continue to reduce CO2 level – while wind / solar energy generation capacity has more than doubled in the past five years.
Catering to federal and state environmental regulations and sustainability guidelines could be a tough call. It expects companies to manage, track and report a wide range of data such as air pollutant emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, waste treatment and disposal, or other sustainability metrics. Organizations subject to mandatory or voluntary environmental and sustainability reporting could easily take care of such requirements through an AI powered air emission and sustainability software.
Source: Jessican Lyons Hardcastle (EnvironmentalLeader.com)
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