Section 1: Comparing TRI and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

TRI Waste Rates and GHG Emissions Rates by Fuel Type

This figure shows TRI waste management rates and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rates for facilities in the electric utilities industry that reported to both TRI and the GHGRP for 2012, the most recent year for which the facility-level fuel use data are available. By fuel type, the figure shows:

• Bituminous coal has the highest total TRI waste generation per megawatt hour (MWhr) of electricity produced, most of which is treated for destruction. Of the coal types, however, bituminous coal has the lowest moisture content, making it the most efficient coal in terms of power generation and therefore has the lowest GHG emission rate. West Virginia leads production of bituminous coal, followed by Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
• Among coal types, combustion of subbituminous coal generates significantly less acid aerosol than bituminous coal or other coal, resulting in lower TRI waste generation rate. Wyoming produces the vast majority of subbituminous coal in the U.S.
• All coal combution (bituminous, subbituminous, and other which includes lignite and waste coal) generates ash, which may be disposed to land.
• Of the fossil fuels, natural gas has the lowest TRI air release rate and the lowest TRI waste management rate, as it contains lower level of toxic chemicals in the fuel. Natural gas also has the lowest carbon content per energy quantity and as such, has a GHG emission rate considerably lower than that of coal and oil fuels.
• Oil fuels consisting of distillate and residual fuel oil, have the highest air release rate of the fossil fuels. This reflects and absence of reported treatment methods at TRI facilities burning oil. As oil fuels have a lower carbon content than coal, they have a lower GHG emission rate than coal, but greater than that of natural gas.
• Few nuclear power plants are required to report to TRI and the rates calculated in the graph are based on only six facilities. Based on these facilities' reporting, nuclear plants' generation rates for both toxics and GHGs are very low.

You can learn more about TRI reporting by electric utilities in the Electric Utilities Industry section.

Notes:

• The figure includes waste rates for the primary TRI waste management methods for the sector: air emissions, land disposal, and treatment. Other TRI waste management methods, such as recycling and discharges to water, account for less than 1% of waste managed and therefore are not included in the figure.
• This graph only includes electric utilities that combust some (even small amounts) of coal or oil; most natural gas electric utilities do not combust these fuels and therefore are not subject to TRI reporting.
• To ensure that the emissions were representative of the specific fuel types, 481 facilities were excluded from this graph because their fuel mix exceeded 1% of other fuels types.
• These rates are based on waste generated at the electric utility only and do not reflect the entire lifecycle of the fuel (e.g., they do not include extraction of the fuel).
• Data on the quantity of fuel used by facility is from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

This page was published in January 2015 and uses the 2013 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2014.