Learn more about what's killing us

Three new sites track individual power plants and your connection to them 3

Three excellent new sites went up in the last few days, all related to the single biggest source of CO2 emissions in the world: power plants.

CARMA contains "the world's most detailed and comprehensive information on carbon emissions resulting from the production of electricity." You can track power plants in any zip code or any part of the world, see how much CO2 they emit, and how they rank relative to other plants. Here are some tips to get you started using the site. Fascinating stuff.

The Sierra Club's coal plant tracker "lists every new proposed coal-fired power plant in the U.S., where it is in the permitting process and how much global warming pollution it will emit." It also has info on who's funding the plants.

Meanwhile, Appalachian Voices just started up My Connection to Mountaintop Removal Mining. You can enter your zip code and find out whether the electricity you get from your utility comes in part from coal gathered by blowing up mountains.

The internets are awesome.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. RoySV Posted 4:36 am
    15 Nov 2007

    What's killing us -- ourselves?Just to caution against blaming those nasty plants. Yes coal is evil, I agree.
    However, I believe transportation accounts for the greatest portion of GWG emissions in the United States. No?
    So, it's cars, trucks, trains, planes, boats. IOW, our personal trips, purchases, and consumption are "right up there!"
    Roy

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  2. Solar John Posted 10:45 pm
    15 Nov 2007

    killing ourselvesIf we stop using electricity no power plants will be built.  Obviously we can't do that, at least not anytime soon, but we can cut back.  We can install compact fluorescent lights and energy-efficient appliances.  We can go a step beyond that and install solar panels or windmills.  Within the next three years we'll be able to trade our fossil-fuel-powered cars with electric ones.  But whatever you do, please don't wait for someone else to solve the problem, and please help to elect a president who truely cares about the environment.  The one we now have allows mountains to be blown up, a crime against nature.
    John  

    http://solarjohn.blogspot.com



    Solar John

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  3. KenG Posted 3:38 am
    16 Nov 2007

    Carbon SourcesI don't have my data at hand but I believe that transportation and electrical generation generate similar amounts of CO2. The long term point of interest is that, once you apply conservation, further transportation CO2 reductions will likely depend on increased electricity production (EVs or hydrogen). That puts a lot of focus on electrical generation technology.

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