Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Very Cool Tool from EPA

 
Legend explaining that green represents National Fuel Mix and blue represents Your Region's Fuel Mix
0.5
2.5
chart
0.0
5.8
chart
37.8
chart
19.4
chart
5.0
chart
1.6
chart
56.3
chart
21.7
chart
0.0
chart
48.5
chart
%
Non-Hydro Renewables Hydro Nuclear Oil Gas Coal

It's about time we knew this stuff.  We care where our food comes from, our water we drink, the products we use, even our entertainment is scrutinized.  It's about time we understood how the electricity we Americans consume so voraciously is created (and how green it is).

Enter the Environmental Protection Agency's cool online tool titled How Clean is the Electricity I Use?

Enter your zip code and a chart comes up with percentages of fuels, such as coal, gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and renewables, used to generate the electricity you use.  It varies per region and area.  Above is the New York City mix.

Keep in mind coal and gas means burning those fossil fuels to turn generators to make electricity. The combustion spews pollution including carbon.

Nuclear has no emissions but well, we could safely say there are serious safety concerns with it.

Hydroelectric is damming rivers to turn those generators to make electricity, which is controversial as it can displace people, harm wildlife, etc. but it is sometimes counted as a renewable source.

Renewables on the list, if you're lucky enough to even have any in your mix, are wind and solar.

My hope is to increase renewables dramatically and fast across all zip codes.

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