U.S. EMISSIONS DROP AS ELECTRICITY OUTPUT RISES

Groups credit natural gas, renewables with steep emissions cuts in power sector

Dan Lowry, May 15, 2013 (SNL)

“U.S. power plant emissions from the nation's largest generators continued to fall in 2011 even as overall electricity output rose…Since Congress passed major amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990, power plant NOx emissions have fallen 70% and SO2 emissions have dropped 72%. Carbon dioxide emissions have declined 7% from 2008 to 2011…The highest CO2 emission rates came from states that are heavily reliant on coal, including Wyoming and Kentucky…

“…[T]he steep emissions cuts [were due] to a shift away from coal-fired generation toward lower-emitting energy sources, such as renewables and natural gas. Between 2000 and 2011, natural gas generation rose 69% in the U.S. and renewable generation grew 44%. Coal generation dropped 12%, but still represented 44% of the power generated by the 100 largest generators, by far the largest…”

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“The top 100 power producers own more than 2,600 power plants and account for 86% of domestic electricity generation…Air pollution emissions from power plants, while declining overall, are highly concentrated primarily among three power producers: Southern Co., American Electric Power Co. Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc...

“…AEP and Southern have been preparing to retire thousands of megawatts of coal-fired capacity, convert coal units to natural gas or installing emission control equipment on certain units, in order to reduce emissions and meet new federal air regulations…AEP plans to retire about 6,000 MW of coal-fired capacity and install additional pollution controls on more than 10,000 MW of capacity by 2020…[Cuts in] NOx and SO2 emissions…[are ahead of cuts in] mercury and CO2 emissions. Coal-fired plants were responsible for 81% of CO2 emissions, compared to 18% for gas-fired plants…Texas was the leading emitter of CO2, followed by Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Indiana.”

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