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Ask a Scientist: Gas Plants Disproportionately Harm Marginalized Communities

Union of Concerned Scientists

Responsible for 12 percent of all US global warming emissions from human activities, methane traps significantly more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, making it 86 times more harmful for the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere. Its primary component is methane. First, there’s air pollution.

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DEP Awards 4 Grants Totaling $2.9 Million To Replace Old Diesel With Clean-Energy Vehicles

PA Environment Daily

By replacing older polluting engines and equipment with new technologies, funded projects remove nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and hydrocarbon pollution from the air. Zero- and low-emission vehicles also lower carbon dioxide emissions, helping to lessen climate change.

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Ask a Scientist: Two Dozen States Can Meet 100 Percent of Electricity Demand with Renewables by 2035

Union of Concerned Scientists

We also evaluated the potential to accelerate the use of renewable energy dramatically through state-level renewable electricity standards, which have been major drivers of clean energy in recent decades. Under the no-new-policy scenario, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides decline only by 27 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

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Good News—and Bad—about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023 

Union of Concerned Scientists

With the clean energy transition already under way, the US electricity mix is set to continue changing this year. Solar power is expected to make up about half of all additions of US electric generating capacity in 2023, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). I’ll start off with the good.

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A 100% Renewable Energy Future is Possible, and We Need It

Union of Concerned Scientists

Sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) emissions from power plants in USCA states fall 88 and 77 percent respectively by 2040, compared with 27 and 18 percent under current policies and plans. Just as important, cleaning up the power grid can also decrease carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions.

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Don’t Believe the Lies: Five Facts to Consider as the UN’s COP27 Comes to a Close

Union of Concerned Scientists

Their study examined the carbon dioxide and methane emissions from these companies’ products, as well as from the extraction and production processes of the largest gas, oil and coal producers and cement manufacturers. Data on the major carbon producers’ emissions have been published since 2014.

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Reliance on Gas Power Plants Fuels Inequity

Union of Concerned Scientists

Most notable of these polluting emissions are nitrogen oxides (NOx). Climate impacts The power sector accounts for approximately 25% of heat-trapping emissions in the United States, with gas plants accounting for 45% of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the power industry.