The Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana supplies most of the fuel for the 13 biggest air polluters in the U.S., all of which are coal-fired power plants. Danielle Venton of High Country News has compiled Environmental Protection Agency data into an infographic map showing the connection of the basin to the plants, mostly in the East. It's important to note that utilities are using more western coal to lower sulfur dioxide emissions. Eastern coal contains high amounts of sulfur, the burning of which can be blamed for higher rates of power plant related illness and death.
"Though our region's inhabitants feel fewer of the impacts of burning coal, we're not in the clear: Already-arid Western regions will become disproportionately drier than the more verdant East as a result of climate change," Venton writes. The map, which also highlights all coal plants' estimated county-by-county effect on death rates, can be found here.
"Though our region's inhabitants feel fewer of the impacts of burning coal, we're not in the clear: Already-arid Western regions will become disproportionately drier than the more verdant East as a result of climate change," Venton writes. The map, which also highlights all coal plants' estimated county-by-county effect on death rates, can be found here.
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