Georgia leads the nation for dirty power plants, which are the primary source for greenhouse gases like CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide. To put things into perspective, for cars to produce as much planet-baking CO₂ as U.S. coal-fired power plants do in a year, Americans would have to drive at least twice as much as they currently do.

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released an online Greenhouse Gas Database that allows consumers to find out which power plants are polluting the most. The database, which includes the 6,700 power plants and heavy industrial sites responsible for 80 percent of all emissions in the US, shows that Georgia is home to the two worst polluting plants in the country—Scherer coal plant in Juliette and Bowen coal plant in Cartersville. Neighboring Alabama has the third worst offender, the Miller coal plant in Quinton, Alabama, while yet another Southern state, Texas, is the locale of the fourth worst plant, the Martin Lake coal plant in Tatum, Texas.

-Matt Bewig

 

America's Top 10 Polluting Power Stations (by Samantha Oltman and Kate Sheppard for Mother Jones, part of the Guardian Environment Network)