Why should consumers care how their electricity is produced?
According to the World Watch Institute in Washington, D.C., electric generation worldwide produces more pollution than any other single activity. In the US, electric power generation accounts for two-thirds of the Country’s emissions of sulfur dioxide (a pollutant that causes acid rain) and more than a third of the carbon dioxide (causing global warming). Electricity production also creates nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog. A recent study estimated that approximately 64,000 people in the US die prematurely from heart and lung disease every year due to particulate air pollution – more people than die each year in car accidents. Children and seniors are most susceptible.
