ATLANTA - Georgia is home to three of the nation’s 100 dirtiest power plants, the Atlantabased Environment Georgia Research & Policy Center reported Monday.
Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen near Cartersville topped the Georgia list for carbon emissions and is ranked 23rd in the country.
Two of Plant Bowen’s four coal-burning units were due to be retired by 2028 under a proposal the Atlanta-based utility filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) last January. But a 14-page agree
But a 14-page agreement Georgia Power and the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff reached last week would leave that decision up to the commission, contingent upon the “completion of necessary transmission system improvements.”
Environment Georgia’s new report ranks power plants across the U.S. by their contribution to climate change based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest eGRID data. The dirtiest power plants have an outsized impact: In 2020, the 10 most climate-polluting plants in Georgia were responsible for 91.5% of global warming emissions from the power sector despite only generating 56.5% of total electricity, according to the report.
While Plant Bowen burns coal, eight of Georgia’s 10 dirtiest power plants are fired by methane gas. Although burning methane gas releases less carbon dioxide than burning coal, the report ranked Plant McDonough, a gas-fired plant near Smryna, as the state’s second dirtiest.
Coal-burning Plant Scherer, near Macon, was third on Georgia’s dirtiest-plants list.
To get power plant pollution under control, the report recommends limiting emissions from power plants and accelerating Georgia’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Georgia Power is proposing to expand its renewable energy portfolio by 2,300 megawatts by 2029.
