An Alabama Coal Plant Once Again Nabs the Dubious Title of the Nation’s Worst Greenhouse Gas Polluter. A single Jefferson County power plant pollutes more than some entire countries!! In West Jefferson, everything happens in the shadow of Alabama Power. Despite that title and its implications, however, residents aren’t always eager to talk about Alabama Power and its impact on the town. The utility’s economic weight in the community is tangible in the parking lot of the Dollar General as residents come and go, unwilling to go on the record about health and other impacts of the plant on their lives. More than 300 people are employed at the Miller Plant. “There’s too much to lose,” one man said as he left the dollar store Tuesday afternoon. “Ain’t nobody gonna talk.”  Data for 2022 released by the EPA shows that the Jefferson County plant emitted nearly 22 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollutants that year, including over 21 million tons of carbon dioxide, 62,000 CO2-equivalent metric tons of methane and 108,000 CO2-equivalent metric tons of nitrous oxide.  Nitrous oxide, commonly referred to as laughing gas, can also remain in the atmosphere for more than a century, where it can be converted into nitrogen oxides that deplete the ozone layer. For comparison, Miller emits around 1.5 million more metric tons of carbon dioxide per year than the entire country of Guatemala, according to global data. While Alabama Power’s parent company has expressed a commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a new report shows that the utility has done little towards achieving that goal. The report, published by the Sierra Club in October, gave Alabama Power an “F”—a zero out of 100—on its transition away from fossil fuels, tying the utility for last place among the dozens of companies graded by the environmental nonprofit. According to the report, despite its parent company’s net-zero pledge, only 2 percent  of coal and gas generation is currently set to be replaced by renewable energy through 2030. Residents near Alabama Power facilities are at an elevated risk of cancers and respiratory hazards, according to EPA data.For example, individuals living within a one-mile radius of Plant Miller are in the 95th to 100th percentile nationally for cancer risk and the 90th to 95th percentile nationally of the respiratory health index, data shows......read on            https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102023/an-alabama-coal-plant-once-again-nabs-the-dubious-title-of-the-nations-worst-greenhouse-gas-polluter/