air pollution
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Utilities can meet EPA standards without threatening reliability
Coal utilities are trying to scare Congress into thinking that if EPA follows up with its planned regulations, electricity rates will soar and there will be reliability problems in the electricity grid. Is it true? According to a comprehensive new analysis, no.
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Smoggy senators protest EPA plan to save thousands of children’s lives
In a startling act of fealty to polluter interests, several senators are fighting scientifically guided smog limits that would save thousands of lives a year.
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The two biggest (non-CO2) threats to coal power from the EPA
EPA is working furiously on clean-air rules, and coal-dominated utilities are terrified. Some of the oldest, dirtiest coal plants will be shut down.
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Why are American coal plants still so dirty?
Yesterday I published a brief overview of the U.S. power sector. Aging coal plants are responsible for the vast bulk of the its pollution -- greenhouse gases, SOX and NOX, particulates (smog), mercury, combustion ash, you name it. The power sector's pollution problem is largely the problem of old coal plants. What's the deal with that? Why are those plants still so filthy?
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The U.S. power sector: where the power plants are, when they were built, what they pollute
A broad look at the power industry -- where the power plants are, what they burn, and which ones pollute.
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Burning Coal + Hot Days = Unhealthy Air Warnings
Yesterday and today are code orange unhealthy air alert days in the Washington, DC, region where I live. The 95+ degree temperatures and excessive ground-level ozone create extremely unhealthy air – especially for kids, senior citizens, and people with pre-existing health conditions. These aren’t the first days this summer where we’ve had these warnings, and […]
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BP collecting millions in government stimulus funds for California power plant
The oil spill bad guys are raking in taxpayer bucks to build a new Carbon Capture and Sequestration power plant in California.
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Robert Cluck: Texas doctor, Republican mayor, clean-air champ
Deceptively clear skies over Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.Courtesy jacorbett70 via FlickrPhysician Robert Cluck spends his mornings working at Arlington Memorial Hospital and his afternoons as mayor of Arlington, Texas, a city of 375,000 that has one of the worst ozone problems in the country. Seeing children with asthma in the emergency room has led him […]
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Tailpipe fumes are five times worse for bikers than for drivers, study finds
Well this is a bummer: A Belgian study finds that bicyclists on urban streets inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles with each breath, taking in five times as much as drivers and pedestrians on the same streets. The U.K. Times reports on the new research: Because they are exerting themselves, cyclists breathe harder and […]
