Residents can keep track of local large sources of greenhouse gas emissions with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database and searchable online map released earlier this month.
The database reports 2010 emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and contribute to global warming, climate scientists say.
The region’s highest greenhouse gas emitter is Dominion Virginia Power’s Altavista Power Station, according to the database. The Goodyear tire manufacturing plant and the Owens-Brockway Glass Container facility are listed as the largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions in Danville.
The Martinsville Sanitary Landfill and Transco Station 165 in Pittsylvania County also made the list.
The Altavista Power Station is one of three small (63 megawatt) coal-fired plants that Dominion Virginia Power would like to convert to using wood waste, or biomass.
The biomass plant would still give off carbon dioxide but would “virtually eliminate” coal-fired plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, a major component of acid rain, said Jim Norvelle, Dominion spokesman, in an email. Nitrogen oxide emissions, a component of smog, would decrease.
“At the present time, there are no technologies available on a mass scale to reduce or control emissions of carbon dioxide,” Norvelle said, adding research is still ongoing for that technology.
Greenhouse gases at the Danville Goodyear plant are generated by natural gas-fired boilers used to produce steam for the tire manufacturing process, said company spokeswoman Amy Brei in an email. Goodyear has a corporate-wide goal of reducing greenhouse gas emission rates by 3 percent each year.
Owens-Illinois, parent company of Owens-Brockway Glass in Danville, aims to reduce its carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from 2007 to 2017 by 65 percent, said Beth Peery, regional communications manager for O-I North America. The company also plans to reduce energy use and use more recycled glass.
Not all facilities are included in the initial EPA database, which includes specific industry groups releasing the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or more per year. Next year will include 2011 emissions from more industry types. The database doesn’t include emissions from mobile sources, like vehicles.
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