Your guide to local greenhouse gas emitters

Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released national data from 2010 for about 6,700 large industrial emitters of greenhouse gases.  They were predominantly power plants, and they released mostly carbon dioxide.

I wrote a story about it for this morning's paper.

That story focused on how Pennsylvania ranked second in the nation in the amount of emissions from these sources, and how seven coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania made the list of the top 100 emitters nationwide.

Beyond that, what's really interesting about the data set released by the EPA is that it's in a user-friendly web tool that allows regular Joes to search for data on specific facilities or see which facilities in their area are emitting greenhouse gases. It's at http://ghgdata.gov

And you can learn more about the program and the data by clicking here.

This isn't as much a public health issue as, say, a local industry emitting toxins that will harm your health. But for anyone who cares about the planet that their children's children will inherit, they may want to start paying attention to greenhouse gas emitters.

For those who feel insecure accessing the data, I've done seraches and will give you the links below.

All of Pennsylvania - 254 facilities

Bucks County - four facilities

Chester County - three facilities

Delaware County - eight facilities

Montgomery County - seven facilities

Philadelphia County - 11 facilities

All of New Jersey - 98 facilities

Burlington County - four facilities

Camden County - four facilities

Gloucester County - eight facilities

Most people ought to be able to take it from here. Happy rummaging about on the site!