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sonias

(18,063 posts)
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 03:33 PM Jan 2012

We’re No. 1: Texas leads states in global warming emissions


Texas Climate News 1/12/12

We’re No. 1: Texas leads states in global warming emissions

It should surprise no one who follows climate issues at all closely that new data released by federal officials on Wednesday showed Texas far surpasses other states in industrial emissions of global warming gases.

Earlier estimates had already put Texas at the top of state rankings for those emissions, which largely flow from the state’s many electric power plants, oil refineries and petrochemical facilities.

The data released this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reflecting industry-reported emissions during 2010, were far more detailed, however, and easily accessible and sortable on an interactive map that the EPA placed online.

Texas had 673 facilities (about a tenth of the national total) that reported emitting a total of 294 million metric tons (MMT) of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) in 2010, according to the EPA. Pennsylvania ranked second, with 129 MMT, and Florida third, with 125 MMT.


PA was second but we still spew twice as much CO2 as they do. We are the worst polluting state in the nation.

Not that the republican leaders of our state give a crap. They'll all eventually move somewhere else when they have finished running the state further into the ground.
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We’re No. 1: Texas leads states in global warming emissions (Original Post) sonias Jan 2012 OP
And in a related story sonias Jan 2012 #1
When I read this my first thought was, "why'd I ever bother to quit smoking?" Lone_Star_Dem Jan 2012 #2
Austin is listed as one of those polluters sonias Jan 2012 #4
Wasn't the EPA the third government agency that Ricky Perry wanted to cut? TexasTowelie Jan 2012 #3
Well he hates them for sure sonias Jan 2012 #5

sonias

(18,063 posts)
1. And in a related story
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 03:42 PM
Jan 2012

Texas Tribune 9/12/12
Greenhouse Gas Wars to Restart in Texas

The greenhouse gas wars are about to heat up again in Texas. Next month, a federal court hears oral arguments in lawsuits that Texas has filed to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency, which began regulating heat-trapping emissions a year ago.

The EPA is hardly backing down. On Wednesday, the agency released an easily searchable database of big greenhouse gas polluters across the nation, prompting Texas environmentalists to immediately list the largest polluters in the state. Topping the list is the 1970s-era Martin Lake coal plant (pictured) in the East Texas city of Tatum. In 2010 it emitted nearly 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, about 13 percent more than the runner-up, the W.A. Parish coal plant in Thompsons, southwest of Houston. In third place is the Monticello coal plant in Northeast Texas, which narrowly avoided a shutdown when a federal appeals court issued a last-minute stay to an EPA pollution rule last month.

"This will be the first time that this data is publicly available and will inform Americans about the heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted in their communities," wrote Elena Craft, a health scientist with the Austin office of the Environmental Defense Fund, in a blog post. Power plant data has always been available, she said, but now industries like pulp and paper and landfills must also report it.

Texas is believed to be the largest greenhouse gas emitter of any state, according to David Bary, a regional spokesman for the EPA. That's largely because of the preponderance of refineries, power plants and other heavy industry in Texas, as well as Texans' driving habits and the sheer size of the state.


Lone_Star_Dem

(28,158 posts)
2. When I read this my first thought was, "why'd I ever bother to quit smoking?"
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 03:49 PM
Jan 2012

Living in some parts of Texas is like smoking a pack a day.

sonias

(18,063 posts)
4. Austin is listed as one of those polluters
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 07:55 PM
Jan 2012

So I'm right there in that "smoking a pack a day" feeling with ya. And I never smoked. We are a testing lab in Texas for polluting industry. Or at least the country's waste dump.

Emphasis mine and this was from the Texas Climate story linked in the OP

Using the EPA’s interactive map to compile data, the Environment Texas advocacy group released a list of Texas’ seven industrial facilities that ranked among the top 50 nationwide reporting the most greenhouse-gas emissions.

They were Luminant’s Martin Lake power plant (No. 4 nationally) and Monticello power plant (No. 19), NRG’s W.A. Parish power plant (No. 11) and Limestone power plant (No. 26), the Sam Seymour plant owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and city of Austin (No. 39), AEP SWEPCO’s Welsh power plant (No. 40), and ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery (No. 45).




TexasTowelie

(112,204 posts)
3. Wasn't the EPA the third government agency that Ricky Perry wanted to cut?
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 04:01 PM
Jan 2012

The politicians in Austin are reluctant to do anything to clean up air pollution as long as their campaign funds are replenished each election.

sonias

(18,063 posts)
5. Well he hates them for sure
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 07:58 PM
Jan 2012

But I think it was the Energy Department he wanted to kill, but I forget...

Commerce, Education and eh....

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