January 12, 2012
For those with an eye on going green, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency has released a cool new interactive map that shows all of the entities that emit pollutants into the environment and at what levels for every city and town in the nation.
The new online mapping service is available through the EPA's website and shows, for instance, that Southern Company's Plant Mitchell in rural Dougherty County emits more than 120,000 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and that the Dougherty County Landfill emits 75,000 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide into the air.
Earlier this week, the EPA released data ranking the nation's top Greenhouse gas emiters, with Southern Company's Juliet Power Plant here in Georgia as the top.
According to a post about the maps in the New York Times, Gina McCarthy, head of the E.P.A.’s office of air and radiation, told the paper that she hoped that making the information widely available would eventually lead to pressure for emissions cuts.
“This tool is designed to be user-friendly, so that businesses, industry and nonprofits can get a better understanding of where greenhouse gases are being generated and to build enthusiasm for greenhouse gas reductions,” she said in a conference call unveiling the new registry.
The map doesn't include emissions from agriculture, forestry or transportation sources which currently aren't required to report them to the federal government.
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