Who Pollutes?

Montreal, 11/01/2005 - The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today released the first comparability report on emissions data from over 1000 individual fossil-fuel power plants in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The report, North American Power Plant Air Emissions, is a first step towards the possible development of a shared emissions inventory for North America.



The study finds a small percentage of facilities release much of the electricity sector's sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide emissions in North America. These emissions are known to contribute to acid rain, haze, smog, and climate change, as well as toxic mercury found in fish and eaten by people.

"This report shows that, site by site, coal-fired power plants are the dominant source of harmful air emissions from the electricity sector in North America," says William Kennedy, executive director of the CEC.

The report, which compiles data from 2002, notes that each nation has a unique mix of fuels and technologies to produce electricity. Whereas the United States generates half of its electricity from coal, Mexico only gets about eight percent of its electricity from coal, while generating more than two-thirds of its power from oil and natural gas. By contrast, Canada produces the largest share of its electricity from hydropower.

While coal combustion accounts for only 44 percent of electricity on the continent, it is responsible for 86 percent of total sulfur dioxide emissions from electricity and 90 percent of nitrogen oxides. The vast majority of mercury emissions from electricity generation in each country also come from coal combustion.

The data reveal wide variations in the emissions performance of individual fossil-fuel power plants throughout North America. The biggest sources of air pollution are generally clustered in the midwestern and southeastern United States, along with some large oil and coal plants in Mexico.

"Only a relatively few big power plants use modern pollution control equipment for some of these pollutants," says Paul J. Miller, the report's co-author and the CEC's Program Coordinator for Air Quality. "For example, there is tremendous potential to use technology to make further reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions, linked to fine particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides, linked to smog."

Miller also notes that fossil fuel power plants in Canada, Mexico and the United States contribute 22 percent, 30 percent and 39 percent of the three countries' respective national emissions of carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.

"The report is a snapshot of the air pollution and power generation relationship in North America, but we should recognize that many companies have already acted to reduce their environmental footprint," says Kennedy. "In fact, a number of power plants are currently installing new technologies to reduce pollution, and this report helps set a North American benchmark with which we can show their environmental achievements over time."

Copies of the report are available online at www.cec.org