Kentucky environmental attorney Sanders says 2007 air emission data shows coal fired utility plants emit 3X amount of CO2 as do cars according to Environment America.

A report released by Washington, D.C.-based Environment America Texas, Ohio and Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania as the greatest emitters of CO2.  The study was based on U.S. EPA emission data for 2007, the latest year for which final data were available. 

To no one’s real surprise, electric generating power plants located in Texas emit nearly twice the amount of CO2, as plants located in Ohio and Florida.

According to Environment America’s report, the nation’s power plants emitted 2.56 billion tons of global warming pollution in 2007. That amount of CO2 is equivalent to the pollution from nearly 450 million of today’s cars – nearly three times the number of cars registered in the United States in 2007. 

More than 70 percent of these emissions came from fossil fuel plants – primarily coal plants – built before 1980.  Indeed, two-thirds of fossil-fuel electric generating plants were built before 1980. The oldest plants in the nation are located in Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, Iowa, and North Carolina.  Some of these plants are more than 70 years old.

America’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants emitted more than 80 percent of CO₂ pollution from U.S. power plants in 2007 and 36 percent of the total U.S. CO₂ pollution, as well as disproportionate amounts of smog- and soot-forming pollutants, toxic mercury, and other toxic air pollutants. 

Kentucky generates about 92% of its electricity from coal.   Thus, I don’t look for Kentucky or its regulatory agency to give this new report much credence.