Environmental Information

 

 

This graph shows that while power generation and CO2 emissions were increasing at a similar rate from 1990 to about 2000, from 2001 on these power plants have greatly reduced the rate of their CO2 emissions. In 1990, the plants produced 2.17 megawatt hours while generating 1.95 metric tons of CO2 emissions or 0.90 metric tons of CO2 per megawatt hour. By 2021, the plants produced 2.59 megawatt hours but only 1.65 metric tons of CO2 or 0.64 metric tons of CO2 per megawatt hour.

This graph uses annual USA electrical power plant information from 1990 to 2021 reported by the US Energy Information Administration (https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data.php).

 

The above chart shows by zip code the 214 million pounds of carcinogenic chemical waste that was released back into the environment. While most of the facilities release well under 2 million pounds, one location in Michigan (zip code 48111) on its own released 33 million pounds (the chart shows 38 million pounds because there other facilities in that zip code). We separated that zip code out of our map of the US since its number were so drastically higher than the rest (data from the Toxics Release Inventory Program). 

 

The EPA tracks how industries manage certain toxic chemicals. This chart shows the production related waste of chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic. In 2021, 29.3 billion pounds of chemicals were managed by industrial facilities, of which 8.7 billion are know to be carcinogenic. Of the carcinogenic chemicals, 98% (or 8.5 billion pounds) are either recycled, treated or combusted for energy recovery, which leaves 214 million pounds (2%) that were released into the environment into either the air, the water or the land (data from the Toxics Release Inventory Program).

 

While the overall carcinogenic chemical waste production has slightly more than doubled between 2001 and 2021 (from 4.2 billion to 8.7 billion), the amount released into the environment has decreased from 348 million pounds in 2001 to 214 million pounds in 2021. And overall the amount of these carcinogenic chemicals that are recycled has increased from 59% in 2001 to 85% in 2021 (data from the Toxics Release Inventory Program).