Indiana coal-fire power plants make group’s list of heavy polluters

Four Indiana coal-burning power plants landed on an environmental group’s latest list of the dirtiest power plants in the nation.\nThe Environmental Integrity Group put Indiana, Texas and Pennsylvania atop a list of the 12 states with the heaviest concentrations of the dirtiest power plants. Texas had five. Indiana and Pennsylvania each had four.\nThe group used data gathered from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.\n“This report is a vivid reminder that generating electricity through coal is a very dirty business, and power companies have not come forward to clean up voluntarily,” said Jan Jarrett of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future during a Thursday conference call to discuss the list.\nHowever, power companies say they operate efficiently and have spent billions cleaning up their plants.\nDuke Energy’s Gibson station near Princeton placed fourth on a list of the Top 50 polluting plants ranked by carbon dioxide tons. American Electric Power’s Rockport plant placed seventh.\nPlants operated by Indianapolis Power & Light and Northern Indiana Public Service Co. also made the list.\n“Here in the Midwest, as this report indicates, we have an abundance of filthy outdated coal burning power plants that are contributing to the soot, smog mercury and global-warming pollution challenges we are facing,” Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club National Coal Campaign said during the conference call.